How to remove the "The publisher of this add-on could not be verified." pop-up when loading Revit?

[ehall8CEK4]

I have a custom plugin that will only be used for internal company use and I am wondering how I might go about removing the pop-up that occurs every time Revit is launched.  As far as I can tell, I have to purchase a $400 certificate online, for each version of Revit this plugin is for.  Since this will not be for public consumption, is there a cheaper (possibly even free) way to accomplish this?

[jeremy_tammik]

Yes. This matter has been discussed several times before here in the forum. Please search for the existing answers.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-api-forum/quot-the-publisher-of-this-add-in-could-not-be-verifi...

[ehall8CEK4]

All of those threads point to a solution that no longer is applicable (MakeCert.exe is no longer supported/available by Microsoft)

[jeremy_tammik]

Are you sure? I simply searched the Internet for makecert.exe for you:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=MakeCert.exe

That immediately brings a host of suggestions on how to move forward, e.g.:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51418366/makecert-exe-missing-in-windows-10-how-to-get-it-and-us...

[ehall8CEK4]

I am positive.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/vpn-gateway/vpn-gateway-certificates-point-to-site-makecert

[jeremy_tammik]

That article says makecert is deprecated (but not unusable), and also that "the certificates that you generate using either method can be installed on any supported client operating system." Plus, it lists alternative approaches, as does the StackOverflow discussion I pointed to. So, why are you positive that neither makecert nor any other alternative method works?

[ehall8CEK4]

Maybe there's been a breakdown in communication.  As far as I knew, the MakeCert program was unavailable (and I still can't find a download for it online myself).  Hence why I came here to ask what the next solution would be.  I'll take a look at the resources you provided, but it might be helpful to fellow Revit users if there was a guide here that used the modern method rather than a deprecated software. I'll admit I don't have a background in coding or computer science so the resources here are what helps me most.

[pendean]

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@ehall8CEK4 wrote:

Maybe there's been a breakdown in communication.  As far as I knew, the MakeCert program was unavailable (and I still can't find a download for it online myself).  Hence why I came here to ask what the next solution would be.  I'll take a look at the resources you provided, but it might be helpful to fellow Revit users if there was a guide here that used the modern method rather than a deprecated software. I'll admit I don't have a background in coding or computer science so the resources here are what helps me most.

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https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/additional-tools/self-signed-certificates-guide#:~:tex.... 

[ricaun]

Last month I needed to create a dump certificate for test purposes.

In the end, I created a markdown file to help me replicate the creation of the certificate and sign a file as well.

Usually, you need to download the Windows App Certification Kit to have access to the MakeCert.exe, pvk2pfx.exe, and signtool.exe, most of the time that kit is already installed on your machine.

In my case in this folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x64\

Here is the file.

• https://gist.github.com/ricaun/9387af385b1ad39ec2328232264ba60e