General Discussions

As simply as possible,

Trainers and viruses are very similar in the ways they work. You are running a program that will attach itself to another process (in our cases, games) to inject new data into that program to give you all the options listed in the trainer. Viruses pretty much do the same thing. But they run often unknowingly to the user or mask as a legitimate program and then inject itself to another process and can do any number of things.

Because of this and the methods being so close the security software will flag it and stop it altogether, wipe it out or move it to quarantine.

For a crude example

Trainer method uses - xxxXxxx.exe
Virus method uses - xxxxxxx.exe

Close, but no cigar.

This is what is generally known as a "false positive". Just send the file using the submission tool of said security software to let the developers know this is a trainer and not a virus and to remove it's particular method from the database. Or, do what most do and just add the needed exclusions to the security software to avoid these warnings in future.

Long story short, CH trainers = GOOD (they give you super powers) You get a trainer and nothing but the trainer. There is no hidden bad stuff here.

Hope this helps give a bit of and idea and understanding to members who may be new to PC's and trainers.

Just to add a little real life experience to what Cypher explained so well. I've been a member here over 13 years and have used a LOT of the CH trainers in all that time. I have never once actually seen or encountered a virus or malware here of any kind. Nor have I ever known any of my friends to have seen one either. These trainers are 100% perfectly safe. Not all trainers from everywhere are 100% safe, but these trainers are safe to use.

The problem has gotten more agreviated lately as Microsoft persists in removing the trainer even after setting the file as an exclusion. You can always disable Real Time Protection & then withstand Microsoft constant nagging about it.
I know Cheat Happens can not help here, but my hope is that if enough people give feedback to Microsoft that maybe.. I repeat maybe (I am not holding my breath :;D) Microsoft will stop thinking that they "always know what is best for us lost children"

@zhrmod: I have set an exclusion to my trainer folder and not a single trainer has been removed or flagged so far, for years now. This includes brand new trainers as well as older trainers. The only setting I've disabled in Windows Defender is the "automatic upload of suspicious files".

Like you said there is not much we can do. We already bought a digital certificate and sign our trainers but if AVs don't respect/trust it anymore then we ran out of options.

To help CH devs, we can report trainers to the vendors as false positive, which I am doing all the trainers that I use.

Thank you, this is indeed very helpful.

How save is the folder exclusion ? I never did that as I fear that other, actually malicious software, might be able to read that exclusion and put stuff in there to bypass the AV. I prefer to temporarily turn the AV completely off, it is just annoying if i forget it and the AV deletes a whole bunch of trainers.

It is always strange to see the ebb and flow of false detection and everything being OK. Just like the last trainer version (The Riftbreaker and Far Cry 6 HF3 for example) suddenly triggering Windows Defender again, while the older ones are still fine.

I wonder if it is possible to have a signature based exclusion, so i could trust the CH signed apps and not open a whole folder. But I guess that is the small price we have to pay for the awesome CH trainers and I am absolutely fine with it.

The false detections will sadly never really stop. Thankfully my defender leaves my CH trainers alone, and never bothers me with it. My Defender finds other harmless apps to harass lol.

It is generally safe to exclude a folder, especially if you browse the internet with common sense. I always say that the first and most important thing to stay safe is to use your brain while you browse the internet. Don't click every link, especially if they look fishy or too good to be true.

Here is a link as well that might help clear some things up regarding the exclusions: Link