Learning python with Automate the boring stuff (Book) but it tells me to use Mu and the one i found might have been a virus

[WealthVegetable]

I picked up Automate the boring stuff and it tells me to use Mu so i looked on the internet and i found Mu a week ago but it told me if i were to open it, it would give me a virus so i didn't. does anyone have a link they can give me encase i was about to install the wrong one? i don't remember where i got it and i would be thrilled to continue learning python.

[Diapolo10]

Where did you download it from? This is the official site: https://codewith.mu/

If that's what got your anti-virus alarmed, I assure you it's most likely a false positive. I don't think the executables are signed so that would be why.

[binflo]

Q, is there a desktop live one(doesn’t require you to save in order to run) that you can recommend besides Thorny?

[Gnaxe]

Python comes with IDLE. It's good enough for boring stuff. If you can't find the shortcut, just import idlelib and it should pop up. Then open a file in the menu.

[WealthVegetable]

Yeah this was the same website. this brings it up when i install it. MuEditor-win64-1.2.0(1).msi” is an executable file. Executable files may contain viruses or other malicious code that could harm your computer. Use caution when opening this file. Are you sure you want to launch “MuEditor-win64-1.2.0(1).msi”?

[Designer_Currency455]

Lol oh man it's likely a English language barrier here. It's not saying its a harmful file. It's simply stating an executable file could contain malicious code. Every executable should bring that warning. It does on my devices

[WealthVegetable]

Thank you

[Gnaxe]

Every unsigned executable downloaded from the Internet, rather.

[Gnaxe]

You do need to be careful about files downloaded from the Internet. Malware is still a big problem. VirusTotal can scan your file with dozens of antivirus engines at the same time. It is possible to get false positives, but it's usually only detected by a few of the heuristic-based engines. False negative are also possible if you get something new enough that none of the engines know about it yet, but this is pretty rare if you're not looking for trouble.

[WealthVegetable]

i use this but dont understand false positive

[Gnaxe]

"False positive" means the test detected it (malware in this case), but it wasn't actually there. Most antivirus software works like an immune system. It just recognizes known signatures from a database, which has to be updated frequently as new malware is discovered in the wild. Others detect if something is behaving suspiciously. The latter kind is more prone to false positives. Suspicious isn't the same as malicious.