Norton Antivirus detects installer as threat

[Oldbushie]

I'm very sorry to hear that these problems are persisting. There are some more advanced potential fixes but those will be discussed with you over email. As for freaking out at 99% downloaded, I have seen that with large files downloaded with Kaspersky, but it usually pops up something saying that it's scanning the downloaded file. I haven't used Norton in ages because it's too unreliable.

Edit: Removed sensitive information.

[Cez]

Greenisles, I've asked in this thread several times, for people having issues to please email us at support@postudios.com so that we can resolve the issue one on one. I get that email and we try our best to take care of actions such as what Aaron is saying. But we request that the conversation is kept private so that we can go lengths to keep you happy as to give you access to things we can't do publicly.

So, please, if you are still having issues, do email us. I did read that you were going to email me, and I was expecting your email.

Thank you, and again, sorry for the inconveniences.

[snabbott]

I would like to add that at no point in this thread have any of the staff been anything but polite. Yes, there were a few misunderstandings, but everyone is genuinely trying to be helpful. Saying that we can't reproduce the problem isn't the same as saying it didn't happen. I really hope you are able to resolve this.

[inm8#2]

One thing I should add is that when I installed the game, I did so from a USB stick. That is, I downloaded the installer file to a USB from another PC. I was extremely apprehensive to try the download on my laptop again after I had partially recovered from the issues I've described. However, I had the same hang up and freezing issues on two different W7 PCs. One of them had MSE, the other had Norton. I'm not 100% sure but I think eventually I disabled MSE on the one system it was running, and the download finally completed.

Like I said above, I think it would be useful to see what specific aspect of the installer is causing these issues. I've downloaded self-created zip files with 2-3 GB of images and data (work-related) in the past couple days with zero issues in MSE scanning and approving the file. Then again those don't include .exe files or other file types that would be of more concern. But my point is that it's not the size of the file, or any of our OS/AV settings. It's either the installer contents, how they're packaged, or some other kind of digital signature.

The impasse in this thread is that nobody's suggesting the installer actually has a virus. It's merely being pointed out that there is something that multiple anti-virus programs (and Windows 7 UAC) do not like. But again, the fundamental issue here has been communication. From my end, after going through a lot of effort to explain the problem I was having, it felt like the issue was being dismissed or marginalized (not that I thought these were actually malicious intentions). And if you guys really weren't sure how to approach this, it would have been okay to say that. But comments such as the following are where I think the communication broke down:

The file itself is definitely fine - we have a number of backers who have downloaded and run it without any problems at all.

Please continue to update us so that we can figure out what the problem is, but it definitely has to do with something in your computer not liking the files, otherwise it would happen on every computer.

We sent this installer to over 600 people and have only had three people come back with this issue.

While these statements are technically true, they didn't help to alleviate the installer issue. They felt extremely defensive and made the customer feel ignored and stupid for bringing the issue up at all. While this might not have been the intent, it's the face value of the words and the impression they left that mattered most. Just because not every person has a specific problem does it mean that this problem should be so quickly blamed on the customer. These responses were really, really awful. They basically suggested that for an issue to have merit, it needed to be experienced by everyone.

Then the discussion deteriorated further from there, with a great deal of irony in the following post that is very telling.

Again, we apologize for the inconveniences, we are not dismissing the problem.
...
Our IT person mentioned this to us today regarding differences in hard drive space, because we sent him the picture you had posted here.

(info about how HDD space is calculated cut out to save space)

Here it says the problem isn't being dismissed, yet in the next paragraph that's exactly what happened again, with the discussion subsequently deflected to things like GB vs. GiB. This appeared to be an attempt to sweep the issue under the rug or rationalize the issues faced with downloading the installer. These responses neglected and ignored all the information and details that preceded it about the system freezing, watching HDD space drop in real time, etc. It simply didn't apply to the root issue at hand and felt like a huge slap in the face.

Based on what was written in some of these posts, I didn't feel like I was being taken seriously. Some statements came across rather coldly and harshly, like cookie-cutter PR statements one might get from a very large company.

I sympathize that when you hear about a problem others are facing, it's frustrating to not be able to fix it for them. I'm someone who tries to give the benefit of the doubt in these situations. However, trying to be as objective as possible, the communication here was really poor and didn't show a level of interest/concern in the customer's problems one would expect. I previously discussed this here.

I'm writing this not to cause any bad feelings or exacerbate the problem. But I think we're starting to go in circles, and while I understand why greenisles is frustrated, after experiencing my own frustration with the situation I don't want to see anybody walk away upset. I'm just trying to illuminate where greenisles is coming from, since it seems there's still a misunderstanding of the reasons for his frustration. I hope it's clear I'm writing this to try and be helpful and supportive, not vindictive or vengeful.

In this day and age it seems like half of the stuff I read on large gaming forums is complaints about customer service from places like Steam or Origin. Point is, customer support is a very important matter, and when not handled well it can really alienate the customer. I've been trying to show where improvements in communication could be made, because many posts showed a lack of real concern and again felt defensive/dismissive, seemingly placing priority on saying "It's you, not us."

Nobody wants to experience that feeling from customer support. Ever.

Like greenisles said, if the customers here didn't care they wouldn't take all the time to continue posting. Most would give up and lose patience. It's not, and never was, an issue of simply politeness. It relates to how the customer's concerns were addressed, and how the same dynamic kept arising despite the efforts to point out these communication issues. Once more this is intended for clarity and to help you as feedback.

[wilco64256]

One thing I should add is that when I installed the game, I did so from a USB stick. That is, I downloaded the installer file to a USB from another PC. I was extremely apprehensive to try the download on my laptop again after I had partially recovered from the issues I've described. However, I had the same hang up and freezing issues on two different W7 PCs. One of them had MSE, the other had Norton. I'm not 100% sure but I think eventually I disabled MSE on the one system it was running, and the download finally completed.

Like I said above, I think it would be useful to see what specific aspect of the installer is causing these issues. I've downloaded self-created zip files with 2-3 GB of images and data (work-related) in the past couple days with zero issues in MSE scanning and approving the file. Then again those don't include .exe files or other file types that would be of more concern. But my point is that it's not the size of the file, or any of our OS/AV settings. It's either the installer contents, how they're packaged, or some other kind of digital signature.

The impasse in this thread is that nobody's suggesting the installer actually has a virus. It's merely being pointed out that there is something that multiple anti-virus programs (and Windows 7 UAC) do not like.

We've spent pretty much our entire day trying to figure out exactly that. Really the installer itself is not at all fancy, it's just a mildly glorified self-extracting executable that presents an EULA and gives the user options for the installation directory and shortcuts. I created our installers using Inno Setup which presents the entire script for review before compiling it, and I've reviewed that numerous times and can't find anything that would be problematic there.

I did find some mentions of anti-virus software getting annoyed at the uninstall file that comes with installers packaged by Inno Setup as it just gets a generic name of "unins000.exe" so it may very well be that files by that specific name have been flagged in the past as malicious and it's getting caught there as a result. I'll see what can be done to change the name of that file and see if that makes any difference. Typically though files will be better received automatically after a few weeks as various anti-virus programs continue auto-updating their libraries and it hasn't been reported directly as malicious.

Again I really can't apologize enough if I came across poorly. I've put a tremendous amount of research into trying to figure this out and see what we can really do from our end to fix it. It's come to my attention that some people thought that me suggesting disabling antivirus was a lazy or rude suggestion, I am definitely sorry if that was the impression I gave. I've heard and seen that suggested in many places and thought it was a fairly widely known concept. It seems that was a bad assumption on my part and I'll try to be a bit more clear about those types of suggestions in the future.

[snabbott]

inm8#2, when I mentioned GB vs GiB, I was using it to say that wasn't your issue. It's really hard to write a response that won't be misinterpreted.

[inm8#2]

I was referring to the general discussion, not to your specific post. Sent you a PM to clarify!