[noAnswer]

Do you download the cross-compiled executable via http or smb to the Windows machine? If so than it most likely got earmarked with a NTFS alternate data stream.

File Settings > This file come from another computer: Unblock

PowerShell > Unblock-File

Add your smb file share as trusted: Internet Properties > Security > Local Intranet > Sites

I hate it too that you need to sign software that you want to publish. Totally destroys the economics of little shareware type software.

[c0l0]

Thanks for this (and I actually learned about PS1's handy Unblock-File this very moment! :)), but I am aware of the "mark of the web"-stuff MSFT had introduced after realizing that an "attacker-controlled" filename extension alone is a poor safeguard against making a file executable ;)

For my specific problem/situation, the executable in question gets transferred to the target machine on a read-only UDF file system burnt onto a USB thumb drive. Other Golang executables from FOSS projects on the same filesystem execute just fine (I guess they have better "reputation", due to their hashes being registered with MSFT somewhere).