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I downloaded the Monero GUI wallet. However, my antivirus (AV) software blocks / quarantines the Monero GUI wallet. Is there a work around I can utilize?

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  • My antivirus is blocking the installation because he found files, their name are : 'Malware-gen", miner or not I can't take this risk with their name... With windows 64 bits
    – bob
    Dec 8, 2019 at 12:06
  • You can safely ignore the warning as long as you properly verified the .zip file. There are instructions in this thread: reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/e0j98n/…
    – dEBRUYNE ♦
    Dec 8, 2019 at 17:12
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    Once you've verified that the file is indeed original monero software and not actual malware, you should email your A/V author to complain their software is throwing false positives. Only if they get pestered about their slapdash detection by their paying customers will they change it.
    – user36303
    Dec 9, 2019 at 23:00
  • Windows 10 is still blocking so many people even AFTER the advice to disable/configure windows defender built in av. They use the windows "exclusion" in their defender settings, allowed threats, etc./windows will absolutely continue to prevent us from opening the files even after disabling defender somehow. Weird. Happening to everyone on windows 10 and discouraging recruitment of new Monero users. They atone the issues to Monero, not windows as it should be.
    – Michael Borne
    Mar 8, 2021 at 16:22
  • I cannot manage to install monero gui wallet with my hardware device ledger nano x on my mac book pro. i get again and again the following message: error writing from hardware device. check application logs. failed to generate new wallet. no device found. need some help here. thanks patrick
    – Patrick
    Jan 30, 2022 at 16:41

1 Answer 1

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A miner is included in the Monero GUI software and, as a result, most anti virus software flags the Monero GUI files as malware and subsequently quarantines them. Fortunately, however, there's a fairly trivial work around you can use. That is:

  1. Create a new directory / folder.

  2. Open your AV software.

  3. Add an exception for the newly created directory / folder. Put differently, you have to whitelist the newly created directory / folder. A guide for Windows Defender can be found here.

  4. Extract the .zip file (in case of Windows) or the .tar.bz2 file (in case of Linux or Mac OS X) to the whitelisted directory / folder.

Note that if you're using Windows and did not install custom anti virus software, Windows Defender is, most likely, acting as active anti virus software.

P.S. We encourage users to check the integrity of the binaries and verify that they were signed by BinaryFate's GPG key. A guide that walks you through this process can be found here for Windows and here for Linux and Mac OS X.

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    Maybe you want to add that on windows you most probably also have to disable / configure Windows Defender to not block / quarantine the wallet. Not everyone understands that they don't have to install an anti-virus software to have one.
    – Endogen
    Jan 22, 2019 at 11:25
  • Good suggestion, will add something to the answer.
    – dEBRUYNE ♦
    Jan 22, 2019 at 13:45

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