Downloading known publisher but states unknown publisher

[actresssharon56]

I am trying to download Audacity. I went to audacityteam.org which says it is the official site. I begin to download and the Program Name states audacity-win-2.1.2 (4).exe, then it states Publisher Unknown, File origin: Hard drive on this computer. So I didn't run it because of the Unknown Publisher. Does anyone know if this is safe? A lot of people use audacity and I would like to hear from an expert. Thanks so much for your response!!

 

[Mellon Head]

You are getting Audacity from the right place, and the version number sounds correct. It may be popping up with "Unknown publisher" because the program doesn't have a GUID built into it. (It's a way of digitally signing the program to make it so Windows sees it as authentic. Some publishers don't do it, particularly if the program is ported from Linux, which I believe Audacity is.) It isn't anything to worry about, for the most part. One thing I would do, and I always do it, is to scan the file with a good anti-virus/anti-malware program before trying to install it.

Enjoy Audacity. It's a very well done, and very useful program for dealing with audio files.