Cannot install v5 after prepared.exe flagged as IDP generic

[wthielke]

I installed v5 a few days ago and had been running it, but suddenly yesterday it stopped and I discovered that my antivirus had flagged the prepared.exe file as IDP Generic virus. I downloaded build 5.0.24.34874 (the hotfix). My antivirus is Avast. I found the prepared.exe file in it's virus chest, flagged with the IDP Generic virus.

I have repeatedly tried to reinstall after cleaning various things, doing a full virus scan on the install packages, deleting the %APPLICATIONDATA% prepared files, redownloading the installation. Every time I get to the point where it is trying to write the prepared.exe file, I get a warning that I don't have permission to write the file and I have to cancel the installation. Before cancelling I notice a link in the target directory having the contents: %COMSPEC% /C "Prepar3D.exe -deletegenerated". Not sure whether that is normal.

I have run out of ideas to complete a successful installation. I wanted to do that and do a thorough check on the prepared.exe file before trying to run it again, but now I can't even install it.

Please advise.

[JorgenSA]

Your best bet at this point, I think, is to contact the Avast people and see if they can help out.

Jorgen

[wthielke]

Jorgen, thanks for responding.

Update -

I got it reinstalled by temporarily disabling Avast. However, shortly after starting the sim and loading my first flight, Avast flagged prepar3d.exe again as being infected by IDP.generic. This time I created an "exception" to ignore it, but I will investigate further, to try to determine whether this is a false positive.

Wes

[wthielke]

Update -

Avast advised to upload the file to virustotal.com. I did that and the report was "No engines detected this file".

Presumably that means, it is a false positive.

Wes

[nathanmark]

The threat is usually categorized as false positive detection. This means that the antivirus program that you’ve installed has detected a legitimate or harmless file as risky and either removed or quarantined it. In any case, the detections end up leading to the removal of significant system files or data. But not every threat that is detected is a false positive.

[nathanmark]

The threat is usually categorized as false positive detection. This means that the antivirus program that you’ve installed has detected a legitimate or harmless file as risky and either removed or quarantined it. In any case, the detections end up leading to the removal of significant system files or data. But not every threat that is detected is a false positive. Here is the guide https://fortheloveoftech.com/idp-generic/ to solve this error.

[Martyson]

Update -

Avast advised to upload the file to virustotal.com. I did that and the report was "No engines detected this file".

Presumably that means, it is a false positive.

Wes

@ wthielke ,

I use Avast for a long time.
In Avast (Menu, Settings, Exceptions) I set all my installed flight sim folders as Exceptions.