RF 9.5 Launcher Issue

Jszczur

Jszczur

New member
About a year ago, I installed RF9 and since then have no issues. However, tonight I went to change some graphics settings to "highest" just to see how much changes and had a catastrophic error resulting in completely deleting the launcher program allowing me to use RF. I have gone through the files and the only thing it lets me bring up in the folder is just the start up notepad. Anyone else have this issue? If there are any recommendations, I am all ears, I am currently out of country for the next few weeks (currently stuck in mandatory quarantine) and don't have access to my RF DVD to redownload the whole program.

Pictures are attached below

Thanks,
Joe
 

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The launcher has been flagged and deleted by MS Defender again. Just create a shortcut to the .exe file and run using that.
 
It sounds like some antivirus software has falsely identified the RealFlight Launcher as a thread. Please see this thread for more info, including steps to restore the Launcher if the protection software flagging it was Windows Defender.

Even if you had your DVDs, you should not "fix" the problem by copying the Launcher from them, because it would be the wrong version, assuming you've done any online updates. The good news is that you don't need them. The proper fix is to get your antivirus software to restore (unquarantine) the Launcher.

Please note that your screenshots are of the <Documents>\RealFlight 9 directory, which is where things like settings and custom models are stored. The RealFlight software itself is installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\RealFlight9 (by default, anyway). That is where the RealFlight.exe (main application) and Launcher9.exe (Launcher application), among other things, are located. Or at least the Launcher would be there if it hadn't been quarantined. I expect it would be missing if you looked right now.
 
The only problem is if you don't catch it quick enough it gets quarantined AND then deleted (I assume this is because of the threat level). So you can't always get it back from Windows Defender. I was able to catch mine before that happened on my home PC but not on my laptop at work. They were both installed from the same source and updated the same so I can copy it back.
 
Oh, that is unfortunate if true. I did a very quick bit of research just now and got the impression that it keeps them forever unless you intervene to specify different behavior, which appears to require either group policy or registry changes. Is it possible you've done that?

What you're doing--copying the file between identical versions--should be safe. ?
 
asj5547 said:
Today the RF9.5 launcher was quarantined by Windows Defender, it was easily restored.
Click to expand...

I'll have to check the settings on my laptop at work. It's my personal one and not on the company network. I connect with it through my phone. Like Ryan said it's probably set to both quarantine and delete instead of just quarantine. I had no option to restore the file on that one like the PC at home. It said file was quarantined and below that another action that said file was deleted. I put that file and the other .exe on a thumb drive now to keep just in case.
 
Ryan Douglas said:
I did a very quick bit of research just now and got the impression that it keeps them forever unless you intervene to specify different behavior
Click to expand...
My week old fresh and default install of Win 10 deleted, not just quarantine. If it stashed them somewhere, I haven't yet found it and Defender isn't talking. Time for the virtual rubber hoses and simulated telephone books to come out and play...
 
I fixed my issue by downloading the Realflight V9.5 installation file from their website. I then extracted the Launcher9.exe and LauncherHelper9.exe files and copied them back to the correct locations.

This is the site that I downloaded the installation file from.

Downloads | RealFlight

RealFlight
www.realflight.com www.realflight.com
 
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The only problem with that is that you will have to keep doing it until update defender is corrected. Just use the RealFlight EXE file. It does not have that problem. There is no reason that you need to use the launcher except to update.
 
12oclockhigh said:
The only problem with that is that you will have to keep doing it until update defender is corrected.
Click to expand...

Not if he excludes the files or executable directory from the scan. It may also be possible to copy them in and do a quick scan manually. There could be the option of allowing them to stay when the scan is triggered by the user. Have to try that later today...
 
My Launcher and link file were also deleted. I think the reason, in my case, was that it was still in quarantine when a Windows Update was applied to the system. Something I read somewhere made me think that Defender holds onto them for a while but not indefinitely. I would suspect that a definitions update or a Defender update may clear the files. I poked around in the quarantine area and I can see a few remnant files that look like GUIDs which may explain why I still see the quarantined files in the security history. I haven't tried to go into the registry to see if the GUIDs point to something or not. I figure if I can get the linker and launcher files somewhere I should be able to stuff them in the RF9 folder and hopefully hitting "allow" in the security panel will finish the process.

Right now I have two problems, I need to get the two files or do a re-install and then re-upgrade and I need to clear it out of the security panel. I need to research the quarantine system a little more as I doubt just deleting the entries will clear it.

Right now I'm using the exe directly but unless I want to constantly check the forums, I need the launcher in case there are any updates.
 
Forgot to ask: Robert,

Which version of RF9.5 does that installer contain? I am on 9.5.024.

Thanks,
Tom
 
12oclockhigh said:
The only problem with that is that you will have to keep doing it until update defender is corrected. Just use the RealFlight EXE file. It does not have that problem. There is no reason that you need to use the launcher except to update.
Click to expand...

12oclockhigh,

If they follow the instructions from Ryan in the other thread it essentially excludes them from scans. The "restore" is supposed to put the files back in the file system (just like a restore from the Recycle Bin) the second part is the "allow" which tells Defender to ignore the scan hit on that file. That way you only exclude the actual flagged files from a quarantine and only for the flagged false positive. It is a little safer than excluding the directory from scans.

The first time this happened to me (9.5.021) the restore/allow worked as planned. The second time (9.5.024) mine failed the restore. I believe it was because of the Windows Update that happened while they were in quarantine. In fact one of my systems lost all of the display personalization settings from the same update.
 
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tharbin said:
Thanks BrokeDad. Guess that means I need to un-install/re-install/re-upgrade. Oh well...
Click to expand...

Look at the file build.num with notepad. That will tell you the version number of the installer. Just open the installer exe like a zip file. I use 7-zip.
 
Thanks. Nice time saver. I was going to unzip it and look at it but knowing what file to look for is a big help. Will do.
 
In case anyone else is wondering. The install files listed above are for 9.50.021. Thanks again BrokeDad. The file was called build.txt in my download.
 
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