QB64 Phoenix Edition v3.11.0 Released!

[RhoSigma]

A bit late but since this has not been mentioned, I get a positive with ESET detection on padlock.dll.
I know of the (old?) advice to exclude the qb64 folder from the scanners eyes.  But this never was necessary here.

The advise is still true, my personal advise is much better for all your paranoids out there:

Get rid of the virus scanner, those are the only programs which dig and hack so deep into your system that nothing works as intended anymore.

Since 12 years I run my Laptop without any protection except active firewall, not even "Defender" and such are activated and I'm surfing a lot even via open networks in cafes, airports and such and never even had to suspect anything infected it. All problems I had, in the end turned out caused by my own dullness and were easily to fix after a real investigation to understand my mistake. So even it often seems your system is infected, in most cases its just something you did wrong by yourself.

That's simply Murphy's law:
Humans doesn't behave, as the Computer expects them to behave. A Computer never does what you want, but only what's programmed.

[SMcNeill]

A bit late but since this has not been mentioned, I get a positive with ESET detection on padlock.dll.
I know of the (old?) advice to exclude the qb64 folder from the scanners eyes.  But this never was necessary here.

The advise is still true, my personal advise is much better for all your paranoids out there:

Get rid of the virus scanner, those are the only programs which dig and hack so deep into your system that nothing works as intended anymore.

Since 12 years I run my Laptop without any protection except active firewall, not even "Defender" and such are activated and I'm surfing a lot even via open networks in cafes, airports and such and never even had to suspect anything infected it. All problems I had, in the end turned out caused by my own dullness and were easily to fix after a real investigation to understand my mistake. So even it often seems your system is infected, in most cases its just something you did wrong by yourself.

That's simply Murphy's law:
Humans doesn't behave, as the Computer expects them to behave. A Computer never does what you want, but only what's programmed.

Rho's exxperience is very much like my own.  I don't tend to have any antivirus installed or activated on my machine; nor do I tend to run a firewall very often.  I do tend to route almost all my internet through a VPN though, just so when I download something I never see those annoying, "You are a pirate!  Bad boy!  Stop it now!!", notices.

One thing I've found is that *ALL* viruses tend to be self-inflicted.  Go to a shady website and click the link that says, "You are visitor #123456789!  You win a new iPad!!"   NOPE -- You just won a virus by being a dummy!   Get an email from N3TFLIX that warns about your account being canceled.   OMG!!  Got to click the link to keep that streaming service available!  CONGRATULATIONS!! YOU WIN A VIRUS!!

It's the user who navigates to such places, follows such links, and downloads such junk, that ends up infecting their system with a virus -- and no antivirus can usually help against that!  The biggest case of getting viruses nowadays is from pirated software.  Download this torrent.  Run this game's EXE.  Three days later -- WTH is my machine now popping up laughing clowns singing, "Never gonna give you up... Never gonna let you down..."

Which is, once again, the end user's fault.  You knew there was a crack in that software.  You knew it wasn't official.  You had to disable your antivirus so it'd install...  and gosh, who woulda thunk it -- it gave you a virus?!!

"But Steve, you don't understand!  I got it from BoogerPickers.Com, where I've downloaded all my illegal Boogery stuff in the past!!"

Doesn't matter.  YOU KNEW IT WAS ILLEGAL BOOGERY STUFF!!  It's always, ALWAYS, **ALWAYS** going to have the possibility of being BAD Boogery stuff.  By installing it on your system, you're an idiot, and no antivirus in the world can protect an idiot from themselves!!

Trust me, I download as much Boogery stuff as anybody here.  The vast majority of it is probably illegal Boogery stuff and always has that possibility of being **BAD** Boogery stuff.  So how do I protect my machine from it, with no firewall or antivirus, or anything similar on it???

Windows Sandbox!!

Comes with Windows 10 and 11.  Can be installed for other systems from their store (I think).  All you do is click the sandbox icon, open up a virtual machine for use, and then install whatever the heck you want on it.  If there's any sort of antivirus, glitch, BAD Boogery, or anything else in the file, you just close the sandbox, laugh happily to yourself, and make fun of the guy who wasted all his time and effort trying to attach a virus to a file that's never going to affect YOU.

Want to visit that suspicious website?  Do it in your sandbox!  Want to click that winning link?  Do it in your sandbox!  Want to download Boogery stuff?  Install it on your sandbox!  

Antivirus not needed.  Firewall not needed.  Windows Security with it's 3214 tabs for various heurestics and cloud protections...  Not needed.  

Just put the stuff you KNOW is good is on your PC.  Install everything else in a sandbox first and see how it blows up THAT system.  And you're golden!

Viruses don't just float around in the air and infect our computers.  We expose them to them via our own actions.  Sandbox is the greatest action one can take to prevent them, and once you get in the habit of installing and testing things there first, then you'll really no longer have need for antiviruses and defenders and firewalls and rtp and kfc and McDs....

[bplus]

First I've heard of this, sandbox that comes automatically with Windows (10) Pro (I just learned I had Pro) or Enterprise? (name just saw) or Windows 11.

How do you tell if a downloaded thing into Sandbox will screw up your system?
ie it's safe to allow out of sandbox and into regular system. I assume any files you make or delete or change or changes to settings while in sandbox disappear when you leave it?

[SMcNeill]

[TerryRitchie]

First I've heard of this, sandbox that comes automatically with Windows (10) Pro (I just learned I had Pro) or Enterprise? (name just saw) or Windows 11.

How do you tell if a downloaded thing into Sandbox will screw up your system?
ie it's safe to allow out of sandbox and into regular system. I assume any files you make or delete or change or changes to settings while in sandbox disappear when you leave it?

Sandbox is just a stripped down version of Virtual PC. If you're using the sandbox to test for malware you'll need to load an anti-virus program each time since everything is wiped on exit. Defender will run (I think) but that is all.

IMO it's better to use something like Virtualbox with a copy of the OS installed that also has an anti-virus program running. It's also helpful to have all of your other tools preinstalled in the Virtualbox OS, like root kit detectors, etc..

After you make your Virtualbox OS image save a copy that you can copy back over for those times when malware infects it. This will refresh your image back to your clean install with tools and anti-virus software preinstalled.

By the way, the only virus tool I run on my daily driver is Microsoft Security Essentials. Those bloated anti-virus programs are crap. As long as you use common sense on the Internet you won't get infected. The only viruses I have detected over the last 10 years are from old hard drives of mine that I hook up via USB to scan for old files. Now and then a ZIP may contained the Stoned virus, or Happy99 and the like. MS Security Essentials detects these with ease.

[zaadstra]

Well, I don't know what to say. As a non-native English speaker, .... I'm speechless.

I think virus and malware protection are good things, as are firewalls and also good common sense.
Yes it costs you some cpu cycles but it can save a lot of misery.  Like for companies, who just require those tools on pc's and laptops.

As a software distributor I would think twice before making statements like above.  I am looking at QB64pe with different eyes now.

[SMcNeill]

Well, I don't know what to say. As a non-native English speaker, .... I'm speechless.

I think virus and malware protection are good things, as are firewalls and also good common sense.
Yes it costs you some cpu cycles but it can save a lot of misery.  Like for companies, who just require those tools on pc's and laptops.

As a software distributor I would think twice before making statements like above.  I am looking at QB64pe with different eyes now.

As a human being, I would think twice before making statements like above.  I am looking at you with different eyes now.

Developers are people, and they're entiled to share their opinions on anything they want.  If you sit down and write a 1000 line "Hello World" program and then offer to share it via the web, does that mean that you no longer get to share your opinion on which OS is better?  Or what coding language is better?  Or which hard drive is better?  Or what anit-virus someone should use?  Or even it you personally find anti-viruses and security settings to be much more of a PITA than anything they were ever made to protect against?

Perhaps if you're SELLING A product, you'll want to refrain from offering any opinion outside of your product, such as Bud Lite and the backlash against their politics.  But if you're just working on a project, AS A HOBBY, and then you decide the share that hobby with the world for free...  WTH would you *ever* withhold your personal opinion over anything?

See, that's the thing about Phoenix Edition -- we don't claim to be "software developers".  We just consider ourselves to be hobbyists working on a pet project that we enoy, in our spare time.  We don't get paid.  We don't earn any endorsements.  Nobody's professional work, jobtitle, promotion, or livelyhood is on the line based on our performance.  QB64PE is a HOBBY that we enjoy working on, and we share it freely so others who enjoy the same hobby can indulge in it with us.

Now, if sharing my hobby means I'm not going to be able to state my opinion on whatsoever subject I want, or else I may end up affecting the count of the userbase....   Welp...  So long!  You know what -- if my opinion offends one person, or a bazillion people, at the end of the day, *I STILL GET PAID THE SAME -- NOTHING!!* 

"Gosh, Steve doesn't like all the security features and account controls and firewalls and antiviruses and run time protections and having to tell his own computer that he's giving it permission to do what he wants it to do every time he turns around!  Guess I just won't program in any version of QB64 which he works on from now on!  How dare he share such an opinion!!  Nuck!  Nuck!"

Well darn.  I'm sorry if I offended you with my opinion.  PLEASE!  PLEASE! PLEEEEAAASSSSEEEEE keep downloading and using the programming language that we work on and offer for absolutely nothing!  I'll be certain to run all my thoughts and opinions and such past you in the future to make certain they all are upheld to your vigerous standards!  After all, I'd lose absolutely all motivation to continue working on something which I personally enoy working on and sharing, just cause your opinion changed over my views on something unrelated!  Heck, I might not even be able to sleep at....  Zzzzzzzzzzz.zz..zzzzzz.zzzzzz.....

   

[dbox]

There, that made it all better.

[DSMan195276]

[NakedApe]