Having issues with Avast? Look here!

sominator · May 2013

Update! You can now resolve this issue by downloading the latest version of the Neverwinter installer on our Download Page.

Hey everyone!

We've looked into reports about conflicts with Avast! Antivirus, and have a potential workaround. Please try these steps:

1. Open the Avast Control Panel

2. Select the "Security" tab.

3. Select the "File System Shield" link

4. Select the "Settings" button

5. Select the "Exclusions" tab on the left sidebar.

(continued below)

sominator · May 2013

(continued from above)

6. Next to the text field, select the "Browse" button. Navigate to the directory where Neverwinter was installed (C:\Users\Public\Games\Cryptic Studios by default) and check the box next to it. Select OK

7. Verify that all three check marks on the Neverwinter entry in the exclusions tab are checked (Read, Write, Execute) and select "Add"

8. Select OK and close the Avast window. You should be good to go.

Also Note:

You may have to navigate to use the Maintenance -> Virus Chest tab to restore Neverwinter.exe back to its original directory after excluding the installed files. In some instances of this error, Neverwinter.exe will not be here and will require the launcher to be downloaded again.

Please feel free to post in this thread with any questions or comments. Thank you!

derressh · May 2013

Thanks for this. I was actually getting quite frustrated about this about 30 minutes ago, and eventually figured it out on my own. But this is good for anyone else that doesn't know about exclusions.

songreaver007 · May 2013

Kaspersky for the win.. Best AV I have ever used.

jokeznz · May 2013

I run an old version of Avast! and have had problems since the last patch. Could this be related or is the conflict only with the latest version?

kyazi · May 2013

no some silly people decided to make avast think neverwinter was a malware (by reporting it several times -.-) so its been blocking it. Somewhere in this post they show how to fix it

try that it worked for me

vaelic · May 2013

report it to avast so they exclude it in the future

allumo619 · May 2013

ya it worked tks

adevlin1991 · May 2013

Was this due to an Avast update or did you guys add some new cheat detection that got you false flagged?

ice1969 · May 2013

I had same problem and this work round does work as i have already done it to get online

rhoric · May 2013

adevlin1991 wrote: »

Was this due to an Avast update or did you guys add some new cheat detection that got you false flagged?

Someone had said Avast had done an update today which is when all these issues started.

jazzneo · May 2013

unstall that 3 rate virus scanner program that ask for money. and install Microsoft Essentials it free and protect your computer virus better

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

electras44 · May 2013

Is this Neverwinter just saying its a mistake or are we really downlaoding Malware from this company into our computers? Anyone know if Avast has mentioned anything on this?

xedellian · May 2013

Works this way pretty well as derscribed above. Just for others if using windows 8 if having to switch to desktop to bring up mail after being prompt for a Machine Code, don't worry if you don't see an icon on the task bar for Neverwinter, there's no picture but the button to restore the program is there. Personal experience anyways.

jazzneo · May 2013

electras44 wrote: »

Is this Neverwinter just saying its a mistake or are we really downlaoding Malware from this company into our computers? Anyone know if Avast has mentioned anything on this?

Avast Think everything a virus when it not. it doesn't really protect your computer if you don't buy it

electras44 · May 2013

jazzneo wrote: »

Avast Think everything a virus when it not. it doesn't really protect your computer if you don't buy it

I see. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. i think I will look into it a bit more just to play it safe.

xandur · May 2013

Avast is one of the best AV out there. Although its really impossible to say which AV is the best because you never know what you will be infected with, and each AV has different virus definitions. Avast has been shown to use very little system processes and scan very effectively, but has only one major draw back: False Positives, something very common with Avast, and this is the case here.

I'm assuming its the Heuristics that Avast is using to detect Neverwinter.exe as a virus, and this is typical when an executable file has no dependency files which is typical of viruses. Neverwinter should do one of two things: One, get a hold of Avast (and all other AV developers) to ensure they are aware of their file and eliminate the false positive permanently, or if its because of heuristics, give Neverwinter.exe some dependencies.

On a side note, i use Avast and have not had this problem, even though my Avast is fully updated and not in my exclusions. This leads me to believe there's some fairly strict setting in Avast that is helping to determine the false positive.

rhoric · May 2013

electras44 wrote: »

Is this Neverwinter just saying its a mistake or are we really downlaoding Malware from this company into our computers? Anyone know if Avast has mentioned anything on this?

The game is NOT malware. It was just a bunch of unhappy players that reported it as such to Avast which caused this issue. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and my updates for it are current up to today and I was ingame not even an hour ago with no problems.

ozzilupo · May 2013

It's a normal thing for PC gamers to add their games to the Exclusion list for both AV and firewall and those that don't should stick with consoles.

vaerdis · May 2013

i made the same kind of Visual post way way earlier this morning but its in the bug section
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?289722-Got-Avast-Antivirus-Free-Add-Neverwinter-Folder-to-Global-Exclusions!

same thing basicly

zlapicka · May 2013

So ok, many words here but still no explanation, why is NW not malware-free.

rhoric · May 2013

Do you not read. The game has NO malware. This happened with WoW before. When you get a bunch of unhappy players, they will report the game to Avast as malware to cause problems cause they were unhappy.

thesirfatant · May 2013

sominator wrote: »

(continued from above)

6. Next to the text field, select the "Browse" button. Navigate to the directory where Neverwinter was installed (C:\Users\Public\Games\Cryptic Studios by default) and check the box next to it. Select OK

7. Verify that all three check marks on the Neverwinter entry in the exclusions tab are checked (Read, Write, Execute) and select "Add"

8. Select OK and close the Avast window. You should be good to go.

Also Note:

You may have to navigate to use the Maintenance -> Virus Chest tab to restore Neverwinter.exe back to its original directory after excluding the installed files. In some instances of this error, Neverwinter.exe will not be here and will require the launcher to be downloaded again.

Please feel free to post in this thread with any questions or comments. Thank you!

Thanks for this. saved me hours of frustration. weird that it happened though?

Sir Fat Ant

torskaldr · May 2013

I cross posted this thread to a mmorpg.com discussion about the issue here: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5748011/thread/385855#5748011

zlapicka · May 2013

rhoric wrote: »

Do you not read. The game has NO malware. This happened with WoW before. When you get a bunch of unhappy players, they will report the game to Avast as malware to cause problems cause they were unhappy.

So you think your meaning is more relevant as Avast for me?

rhoric · May 2013

Notice how it is only Avast that is having issues. I don't use Avast and have had no issues at all. Maybe you should read more of the replies in several other topics that were posted today before complaining. They have all said the game is not malware.

bloodybunny1013 · May 2013

I wasn't having any problems with Avast & running Neverwinter, but I did this anyway just to make sure I don't.

rawsome83 · May 2013

AVG all the way..

jakepigello · May 2013

rawsome83 wrote: »

AVG all the way..

Trolls are out tonight apparently

sirtodion · May 2013

jazzneo wrote: »

unstall that 3 rate virus scanner program that ask for money. and install Microsoft Essentials it free and protect your computer virus better

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download

1. Avast has never asked me for money

2. It never pops-up any ads

3. Its not a 3 rate AV.

4. Microsoft? You obviously have no idea of what you are talking about. Everything that comes from Microsoft is 90% ****. Including Windows.

5. There is barely any point having AV if you dont run Windows updates 24/7 and a manual firewall which you control and accept traffic in and out. Both on PC and in Router.

6. The best AV/Firewall out there is the user himself. Dont enter virus-sites or install/download HAMSTER files.

rwjdk · May 2013

This is a very common problem (for games and other programs). I myself see this happen for some business software I write for a living. Problem is that there are so many antivirus programs out there that some of them to stay relevant try to make analisys of the files and if they look different they incorrectly flag them as virus. With some it happens more often than others (we too have seen this happen with avast) and all the antivirus programs have "false positive" site that the programmers can use for this exact reason.

If some are still skeptical then see www.virustotal.com - they are a very respected site that let you run an executeable against 30+ different antivirus programs at once. Normally you then see that all but one find it safe and you then know it is a false positive (or none as an update for the virus program with issues is now out)

Having issues with Avast? Look here!

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