Vintage Story download flagged by Microsoft Defender?

[Cuddla]

Went to install Vintage Story and got smacked by the exclamation point warning of "Make sure you trust before opening!!!"

Probably nothing but I am extremely paranoid so thought to ask.

[NeutronCoffee]

I think when you first go to download it it prompts that. The devs mentioned it as well, just allow it lol

[Maelstrom]

MS is commonly called MicroSuck for a reason.

[hstone32]

Nothing to be afraid of. I can't think of any greater wolf-crier than MS defender. The idiotic thing won't even let you execute native programs you wrote yourself. They probably just don't like anything that wasn't compiled using some proprietary MS deployment framework or something.

[Maelstrom]

11 hours ago, hstone32 said:

They probably just don't like anything that wasn't compiled using some proprietary MS deployment framework or something.

Not just probably.  Definitely.   Thus MicroSUCK

[Thorfinn]

Which is both good and bad, @hstone32. Yes, lots of false positives, but anything it does let go through is almost certainly fine since it's based on number of downloads without any real positive reports. It's just that if you are new to smaller titles, it can be disconcerting to see that message.

[Sparticus247]

Plenty of people have been playing this game, you can see all sorts of YouTubers and streamers now, and the game has been available publicly for years. 

That being said, if you are downloading from the main site you're good. If you are getting a free key from someone on a random discord group, and they send you an executable file for the game, absolutely do not use that lol.

Edited June 5, 2025 by Sparticus247

[Dilan Rona]

On 6/3/2025 at 12:16 AM, Cuddla said:

Make sure you trust before opening

Windows does do that to all external executables downloaded from the internet. Vintage story is safe. And you can only get that from the account section in any case. Anywhere else would be suspect.

Edited June 5, 2025 by Dilan Rona

[Broccoli Clock]

If the install had a Digital Signature, then this wouldn't happen. To get one you pay MS.

One other option is if a download is so popular, defender will stop flagging it as a risk.

[radfast]

The installation files are digitally signed for Windows of course.  Even so, Microsoft Defender sometimes produces false positives, for some people, when we update to a new game version.  The dev team are actively working with Microsoft to stop this from happening at all, it's a slow road.

Anyone affected by this (assuming it's a genuine download from vintagestory.at and no other source) should simply allow the file as safe.

[FlareUKCS]

I run all DL files via Eset and it scans clean with that paid for anti virus solution, Eset has a favourable reputation iirc.

[Silrana]

If the buyer is American, buying something from a foreign company starts ringing alarms.  Heck, if it's for more than a small amount, I get a possible fraud notice from my credit union.  I had to tell them just a few weeks ago that my malware blocker subscription was okay to pay.