Saturday, October 7, 2017

Antiviral software false positively detects SimShaker executable files. What to do?

Hi guys,
I've got a lot of complaints caused by Windows Defender and some other antiviral software false positively detecting SimShaker executable files as containing a trojan.

First of all, there is no viruses in my software. Some of my files a protected from hacking and that causes some aggressive antiviral software to false positively detect them as a malware. You can extra check my files with www.virustotal.com service (or any other similar service) if you are in a doubt. You can also read more about this problem in this lifehacker.com article.

What to do if  antiviral software blocks SimShaker installation?

Try to temporarily disable antiviral software and install SimShaker. After installation enable antiviral software back again.

What to do if SimShaker crashes when a game starts or shows a helper message that a file is not found by Launcher?

Please go to antiviral software scan history and look for quarantined simshaker exe file(s). If the file is found, select it and restore to its original location. It may not be displayed in Windows Defender list when you just open it. In such a case I go to Defender history, back to the list and (oh, miracle!) file is in the list and now I can restore it.

In general, antiviral software remembers the restored file as safe and does not remove the file again. But it can try to do that again after SimShaker update. Be aware.
I add those helper messages into the latest versions of SimShaker, but some versions still may just crash if the file was "stolen" or blocked by antiviral software.

Windows Defender case. Step 1

Windows Defender case. Step 2
If you'd like to report Microsoft that they accidentally block a good piece of software, you can follow by this link. You will be asked for detected virus name and Windows Defender data base version.
I did that number of times, but currently I can not do that, since I replaced Windows Defender by another (more smart and handy on my opinion) protective software.