Disappearing exe

[BaldJim]

... I am not thrilled with McAfee, but prefer it to Norton which is a huge resource hog, and I have several people using the same account to download the software, so that's what I got. ...

It sounds as if you don't have an independent choice about your virus protection program -- if I understand your post correctly.

If I may be so bold, I suggest that it would be well worth your time and effort to shop around for better protection programs. My experience is that both Norton and McAfee rely on "marketing" more than quality of their programs to be so well known. I use Trend Micro PC-cillin which is probably not quite as good as it once was, but is still a world beater compared with Norton & McAfee. I tried them and they were bad.

That's my suggestion. I also suggest that you ignore cheap shots such as, Phill does not seem to believe what he is writing either. He prefers to use an almost invisible font. There's no link between font/color and belief. Some folks use fonts & colors to compensate for differences in visual ability. Other folks use them for other reasons.

[Phil Walker]

Thanks Jim :blush: (as at least you know and understand why it's done and stated more diplomatically).

While your suggestion might be noteworthy about AV/Firewall programs, many would not agree with you of course (on your last remark anyway). I know some (me indluuded) who swear by either Norton or McAfee, so it's a matter of what you can use that works best and suits you better. No more to add than worth noting and thanks. :cool:


Sincerely,
Phil

[Dobber]

Phil, I thought you despised Norton and McAfee both! :biggrin:

On three machines I have a different AV on each!
On one I have McAfee,
another has CA Anti-virus
and the other has AVG!

I believe the McAfee is going to get booted, and AVG take it's place!

[Phil Walker]

Come now, Dobber :lol: :eek: !!! You're memory must be slipping as (it was brought up in the KoH tech forum,) I use Norton (not straight AV but SystemWorks and Firewall) and have had no troubles with it from first day Installed and they've caught many things while "in progress". I just don't endorse any is all, as if it works use it and if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. :cheers: :angel:

Sincerely,
Phil

[Rnett]

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

[pith]

Phil
Just completed all the steps you recommended, removing all traces of the game and running the virus scan after, prior to that, running through all the additional measures recommended by McAfee, including running SmitFraud Fix and AVG in safe mode. Then reinstalled Anno and immediately scanned the exe, before patching!, and it once again was detected as a trojan!
Would have included screen shot of the report but don't know how to insert a pic.
All the above scans found only a few cookies.
I think it must be some odd characteristic of the exe. The file is too big to send directly to McAfee, so will have to figure some other way of asking them about it. A search of their forums found no other instances of this particular issue.
What do you think? I restored the quarantined file and am going to play the game anyway, as I suspect it is harmless.
Your thoughts would be much appreciated, including those of the other game moderators. Thanks.

[Dobber]

pith, to include a pic, you need to upload the screenshot to a image hosting site, such as Imageshack. Then copy the generated link for forums and paste it in your post here!

[WaxWorm]

Well, this really sounds like a false positive... and there is only one possibility to find out if it is: McAfee has to check the file to avoid that in the future or to confirm an infection.

Although for you, there obviously are some more possibilities how to deal with the problem itself, being that you cannot use the game like it is intended to be used:

- wait until McAfee finds out on their own... could take a lil' longer though :wink:

- switch to another anti-virus program... maybe not the best choice if you like McAfee and even paid for it

- ignore it and use your workaround with the copied exe... pretty annoying though :wink:

- exclude the exe-file from being scanned... now i don't remember McAfee's options exactly since i only used it a long time ago, but normally you can tell an anti-virus program to exclude specific files (NOT filetypes, since you want other exe-files to be scanned!) from the scan.
If i were you, i'd try to find out if and how this is possible with McAfee.

[Phil Walker]

I must agree with WaxWorm (and all his options). Being I don't use McAfee (save that brief time), I'm not sure how to set it, but you might change the settings to not auto-quarantine anything, but "ask me" instead (what I use).

Personally, I'd attach of copy of the .exe file in your next message to them if it were me and let them know you are getting a false positive and want them to examine the file to make a "fix". All I can say or offer to add to what WaxWorm has noted.


Sincerely,
Phil

[pith]

Thanks again to all.
Will get with McAfee and update you all. For now, will see if I can figure out how to get the virus scanner to ignore the file.
Thanks to Rnett for sending the link for top 10 software. Will definitely consider a change, as McAfee is not very user friendly.
Any other posters out there use McAfee and see this problem with the game?

[pith]

Hi folks
Just wanted to post an update: Sent the file to McAfee, and they found no evidence of infection. They emailed me a small update file for the .dat file, and say they will include the update in a future .dat update for all.
Just wanted to let you all know, and again, thanks for the input.
DougP

[Phil Walker]

Thanks for the feedback, Doug. At least they noted it and the fix needed to be done on their end. Hope it resolves the issue for any other who has this issue as well. My Best and Happy Gaming! :angel:

Sincerely,
Phil