How can I prevent the Anti-virus from detecting my app as a virus or malware when another user tries to install it?

Question

recently I've made an automated file sorter based on file extension using Python and Tkinter GUI module, after I was done I compiled the the Python code into an executable using PyInstaller via windows terminal, then I put a "README" text file into the executable folder and compiled that folder as a setup executable using Inno Setup Compiler, it seems to work fine on my computer but when I try to send it to someone, the Anti-virus of the user detects it as a malware and blocks it or sets it in "Quarantine".

So I'd really appreciate it if I can resolve this problem so other users can benefit from it without any problems.

Thank you for your time <3

• Note: I am using Python 3.8 and customtkinter along with the normal Tkinter (both latest versions)

I didn't know how to resolve it and couldn't think of a better place to ask than here.

Answer 1

This is both an interesting question and a question without answer ;-)

You indeed have a real problem and correctly explain what happens. Unfortunately converting a Python program to a Windows executable will almost always raises anti-malware warnings. The underlying reason, is that your executable uses a bootstrap code, that has to prepare an environment for the embedded executable to execute the Python script. And most anti-malware tools choke when they see a program extract something from its data to execute it, because it is a well known malware pattern where a genuine program is wrapped into something that first tries to spread a virus and in the end execute the original code.

That means that I cannot propose any way to really solve your problem :-(

What can be done:

• if you only give your program to friends, just explain them that it will be falsely detected - you even now can explain the reason - and that they have to set an exception in their anti-virus
• if you want to distibute it wildly, and work in a major organization, contact the major anti-virus companies to explain how the program was built (they may require the source and the build instructions) so that they explicitely allow it
• if neither of the previous ways are applicable, just explain the problem and provide the source code and build instructions to allow power users to build from source

I am aware that no of those workarounds is a nice solution, but it is the best I can give you...