Digital signature not recognized when uninstalling from 'Apps & Features'

[agshah]

Hi all,
Had posted this on InstallShield 2016 forums but no replies. I now updated to InstallShield 2018 thinking
this issue may have been resolved but it is still an issue. Can someone kindly advise please.

We have InstallShield 2018 InstallScript MSI project which generates a setup.exe

We sign this setup.exe and when installing users can see it is digitally signed by us.

However, when on Windows 10 and Windows 2016, when uninstalling from Start -> Settings -> System -> Apps & Features,
we click on the 'Uninstall' button for our product, then confirm the uninstall by clicking on the 'Uninstall' button again.

At this point, User Account Control (UAC) kicks in and displays below in the dialog, basically saying the Publisher is Unknown instead of
displaying our name.

******************************************************
Do you want to allow this app from an unknown publisher to make changes to your device?

setup.exe

Publisher: Unknown
File origin: Hard drive on this computer

Show more details.
******************************************************

When clicking on the 'Show more details' above, it says:
Program location: "C\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield Installation Information\{product guid}\setup.exe -runfromtemp -I0x0409 -removeonly.

I looked at setup.exe at C\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield Installation Information\{product guid} and it is around 1 MB where as our
original setup.exe was around 60 MB. So it seems InstallShield has stripped off stuff from the original setup.exe and placed as slim
version of setup.exe and the signed digital certificate is not found ?
How can I resolve this please. Is this a known issue with InstallScript MSI projects that use setup.exe rather than msi file.

Note that if I run the original setup.exe, then the signed certificate is recognized and I can uninstall or repair.

Also, I swapped the slim setup.exe at C\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield Installation Information\{product guid} with the original
one and in this case it is able to recognize and display the signed certificate when uninstalling from Apps & Features

Kindly advise.

[agshah]

This issue seems to be because my project is InstallShield InstallScript MSI.
I created Basic MSI and InstrallScript project types and they don't have this issue.

Can someone please comment if this is a known InstallShield issue with the InstallScript MSI projects?
If so, any workarounds ?

[Jenifer]

Hi agshah,

Have you tried setting Release1->Signing->Sign Output Files-> to Setup.exe ?

In which setup.exe inside cache folder ("C\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield Installation Information\{product guid}\setup.exe) will get signed.By which your problem of uninstalling from Apps & features will get solved




Thanks,
Jenifer

[alex_bond]

I understand that the issue was when ONLY setup.exe was signed - in this case setup.exe (open file properties) has digital signature, but extracted msi does not and when uninstall, the latter unsigned msi is used and it causes unknown publisher message.

If you change "sign output files" from setup.exe to setup.exe and windows installer package - then inner msi will be signed as well and uninstall will show your original publisher.

[MHabermas]

I have "Sign Output Files" set to "setup.exe and windows installer package"- but I am still finding the Verified Publisher to be Unknown when uninstalling under Add or Remove Programs, like in the original post. Are there any other ideas on how this could be resolved?