ToEE and Anti Virus Software: Winners and Losers

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Gaear, Jun 24, 2016.

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  1. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Current status of common antivirus software compatibility with ToEE is listed below.

    1. Ad-Aware
    Historical: xxxx | Current: UNCONFIRMED
    ​
    2. Avast
    Historical: PASS | Current: PASS
    ​
    3. AVG
    Historical: PASS | Current: PASS
    ​
    4. Avira
    Historical: FAIL | Current: UNCONFIRMED
    ​
    5. Bitdefender
    Historical: xxxx | Current: FAIL
    ​
    6. Comodo
    Historical: FAIL | Current: FAIL
    ​
    7. Panda
    Historical: xxxx | Current: PASS
    ​
    8. 360 Total Security
    Historical: xxxx | Current: PASS
    ​
    9. Sophos
    Historical: xxxx | Current: UNCONFIRMED
    ​
    10. ZoneAlarm
    Historical: xxxx | Current: FAIL​

    11. Microsoft Security Essentials
    Historical: FAIL | Current: PASS
    ​
    12. Windows Defender (native to Windows 10)
    Historical: xxxx | Current: PASS​

    13. McAfee
    Historical: FAIL | Current: UNCONFIRMED
    ​
    14. Norton
    Historical: PASS | Current: UNCONFIRMED
    ​
     
    Gaear, Jun 24, 2016
    #1
  2. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    It'd be good if we could update the current situation with ToEE being hamstrung (or not) by various antivirus software, being as the software constantly changes and operating systems are constantly evolving. Documenting the current state of affairs serves as a good knowledge base for players.

    To that end, I'd like to get current reports from active players on the following 14 antivirus software programs. I got the first 10 from a recent PC Magazine article on the best free offerings for 2016, assuming that these are the most likely programs players would use and assuming free software over paid, which I think is a fairly safe position for home users.

    See the list above in post 1 for what software to check and current statuses.

    What to evaluate

    If you're using any of these and would like to contribute to the knowledge base, please evaluate the following:

    1. Does the software delete or try to delete toee.exe and/or temple.dll on scans or just 'automagically?'
    2. Does the software not delete those files but interfere with the game process and make it unplayable?
    3. Does the software play nice overall? We don't want to recommend software that likes ToEE but sucks otherwise.
    4. Are you able to add toee-related files as 'exceptions' - meaning the software will ignore them if you tell it to?

    What to report

    Please answer the above four questions with yes or no and add any additional info you'd like. Also please list the operating system you're using. (I tend to think the OS doesn't matter much but it'd be good to be able to observe trends if there are any.) It's assumed your using the latest version of the antivirus software (many of these packages make it very difficult not to anymore), but if you're not, please note that as well.

    ~

    What we'll hopefully have in the end here is an accurate and reliable master list of recommended antivirus software and software for players to avoid.

    Thanks for contributing!
     
    Gaear, Jun 24, 2016
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  3. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    REPORT: AVG

    VERSION: 2016

    OS: WINDOWS XP

    No (using exclusions). PASS

    No. PASS

    No. Used to be good but as of 2016 wants to be omnipresent and have a say in everything, pimp upgrades, auto-update itself with components you don't want, etc. Also bogs down system. FAIL

    Yes. PASS

    VERDICT: MIXED. Can't recommend this anymore personally due to it becoming too intrusive but at least it doesn't hate ToEE.
     
    Gaear, Jun 24, 2016
    #3
  4. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    REPORT: BITDEFENDER

    VERSION: 2014

    OS: WINDOWS XP

    No. PASS

    Yes. FAIL

    Yes. Sadly this software is pretty nice other than messing with the game process, although it did always want to kill my audio driver too. PASS

    No. Bitdefender is very hands-off and operates almost entirely in the background with very little user input possible. FAIL

    VERDICT: FAIL. ToEE is unplayable with this software installed.
     
    Gaear, Jun 24, 2016
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  5. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    REPORT: PANDA

    VERSION: 2016

    OS: WINDOWS XP

    No (using exceptions). PASS

    No. PASS

    Yes. The only niggly thing is pestering for e-mail registration. PASS

    Yes. PASS

    VERDICT: PASS. Very nice software that gets along with ToEE just fine.
     
    Gaear, Jun 24, 2016
    #5
  6. Pygmy

    Pygmy Established Member Supporter

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    I use AVG 2016 with Windows 10
    I have refused every extra feature they attempt to sell me
    My responses are exactly as for XP above.
     
    Pygmy, Jun 24, 2016
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  7. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    REPORT: AVG

    VERSION: 2016 Paid Subscription

    OS: WIN7 Pro 64 bit

    1. Does the software delete or try to delete toee.exe and/or temple.dll on scans or just 'automagically?'
    No. PASS (creating an exception is not required)

    2. Does the software not delete those files but interfere with the game process and make it unplayable?
    No. PASS

    3. Does the software play nice overall? We don't want to recommend software that likes ToEE but sucks otherwise.
    Yes. PASS The paid version does not inundate you with adds and has run TOEE for me without having to create an exception.

    4. Are you able to add toee-related files as 'exceptions' - meaning the software will ignore them if you tell it to?
    Yes. PASS I believe I could, although I have not had to create any such exceptions with the paid version. I do have quite a library of memory editors and trainers that AVG does not touch being that they are located in a folder that is an exception.

    VERDICT: PASS I recommend this software personally due to it's ability to protect without being to intrusive.
     
    sirchet, Jun 25, 2016
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  8. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Sitra Achara, Jun 25, 2016
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  9. Gehennis

    Gehennis Established Member

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    I use Webroot Secure Anywhere as my pay for antivirus and SUPERAntispyware as my free antivirus while still running Windows 7- neither of them have given me any issue with the latest version of the game...
     
    Gehennis, Jun 27, 2016
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  10. CyrusSpitama

    CyrusSpitama Member

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    Running Win7 32 bit with Microsoft Security Essentials(this is of course free):

    1. Does the software delete or try to delete toee.exe and/or temple.dll on scans or just 'automagically?'

    Had no issues with MSE attempting this. PASS

    2. Does the software not delete those files but interfere with the game process and make it unplayable?

    Encountered no known issues with this either. PASS

    3. Does the software play nice overall? We don't want to recommend software that likes ToEE but sucks otherwise.

    Honestly, my only complaint(s) with MSE are two things:
    1) It can be prone to false positives, but keeping regular updates going has avoided almost all of these. As a rule, I scan fully once per month and weekly do a quick scan. The weekly/monthly scans are bypassed if I had a busy work week/month and have not really touched the computer much. This habit keeps me fully updated with MSE virus databases.
    2) It can slow down some programs running. If I make a folder exception, this avoids MSE constantly hitting this folder and program from seeing slow down issues. Related to number 1 just above, when performing a full scan, I disable these folder exceptions. Don't want any naughty viruses hiding there.
    PASS

    4. Are you able to add toee-related files as 'exceptions' - meaning the software will ignore them if you tell it to?

    Answered above. I can add entire folder exceptions to avoid many hassles. PASS
     
    CyrusSpitama, Jun 28, 2016
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  11. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    SA's linked report looks pretty conclusive, but I think I'd feel more comfortable if we still verified the results ourselves (at least the ones listed above), as some seem to contradict what we believed to be the case originally. So please keep your reports coming. :)

    BTW, I suppose ultimately we should limit our findings to simply whether or not the software works with ToEE or not and leave general likeability up to the user, so to that end I think we'll consider AVG a PASS.
     
    Gaear, Jun 28, 2016
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  12. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Yeah ... just noticed that Panda detected toee.exe on a full scan (in an old backup folder I hadn't added as an exception) and quarantined it as a trojan, which is directly contradictory to the virustotal report, so we definitely need to verify independently.
     
    Gaear, Jul 10, 2016
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  13. Allyx

    Allyx Master Crafter Global Moderator Supporter

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    I'm currently using Zone Alarm, I had to add exceptions for toee.exe and temple.dll, tfe-x.exe too I think (but could be mistaken), I had similar issues with Norton 360 IIRC, and Comodo decided to quarantine the files without notifying me, and it was particularly difficult to set them as safe and un-quarantine them.
     
    Allyx, Jul 11, 2016
    #13
  14. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    REPORT: COMODO

    VERSION: 8

    OS: WINDOWS XP

    Yes. FAIL

    Yes. (Terminates the toee.exe process.) FAIL

    No. Only had it installed long enough to find out about toee.exe but it seemed to struggle to do anything. (Took minutes to scan a single file, no obvious way to schedule scans, etc.) FAIL

    Didn't bother to check. UNKNOWN

    VERDICT: FAIL. ToEE is unplayable with this software installed.
     
    Gaear, Sep 11, 2016
    #14
  15. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    REPORT: QIHOO (360 TOTAL SECURITY)

    VERSION: 8.6

    OS: WINDOWS XP

    No. PASS

    No. PASS

    Seems to be okay. PASS

    N/A. PASS

    VERDICT: PASS. Plays nice with ToEE.
     
    Gaear, Sep 12, 2016
    #15
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