I’m having the same issue with Bitdefender. (Updated)
What antivirus program are you using?
I’m using Bitdefender
Have you tried disabling your antivirus entirely (not just exiting it or silencing it)?
I’ve disabled every protection individually and it works now. But my computer is vulnerable now.
Have you updated your antivirus to the latest virus definitions?
Both Bitdefender and windows are having the latest version.
Have you restarted your computer before disabling your antivirus / launching the game again?
I did
I’ve purchased AE 1,2,3 and AM through Steam and I’ve never had this problem before. Not sure what happened to AE 1 DF.
Well then I am here to work with the devs to troubleshoot this problem more after a dev response on my review but having already red this thread before I don’t expect much progress as this problem exists for over a year.
The antivirus I use is ESET internet security and have followed the possible fixes that some have working with their free antivirus. I have added the full folder and even the whole drive which is dedicated to steam and added the exes separate as well just for good measure. And fully disabled antivirus, firewall, HIPS, Webcam protections, etc etc you get my point.
I disabled any and every 3rd party software other then my dolby digital at home software.
This includes any and ever possible overlay. I am using the latest windows 10 build and ESET is fully up to date I have run the game as administrator as well to give that a shot as well.
I tried the game again today after I booted it up so since my try yday my system had been rebooted and I won’t uninstall ESET just for 1 game that no other game has any issue with at all ever. that is to say hundreds of games. Anything and everything I tried comes back to no avail.
I just want to play single player and that this game even has a feature where it triggers because it is so sensitive is just completely bonkers. I assume this problem exists because they have some weird anticheat or antipirate thing for online play or such but that is just purely an assumption.
I hope this can be fixed within 2 weeks or I will have to refund very sadly. I really want this game to work and support the devs because AOE holds a special place for me like many others.
As mentioned above, I’ve tried all those steps and more. (I’ll copy and paste my original reply to make it easier for you).
"I also have this same problem with Bit Defender. Everything worked fine until this new update.
I’ve got nothing running in the background, I’ve managed to get the Threat defense to exclude the exe, same in the firewall. Permissions are all changed, drivers updated… I don’t know what else to do"
Think its on your end to be honest, game’s unplayable obviously now, please do fix this and let us know when it is! But nice to know there is an admin looking at this!
I have the same problem, and my antivirus is bitdefender to I tried all the steps and the game keeps blocking with the message of another running process interfering.
What antivirus program are you using?
Bitdefender
Have you tried disabling your antivirus entirely (not just exiting it or silencing it)?
If i must do this I prefer stop playing, sorry.
Have you updated your antivirus to the latest virus definitions?
Yes
Have you restarted your computer before disabling your antivirus / launching the game again?
Yes
Hey there friends! Today’s patch should address the issue more directly:
Please let us know if this is NOT the case and we will follow up with the development team to see what kind of information they could use to address it once and for all!
Thanks again for your patience, and happy hunting! =)
I didn’t get a chance to try running the game without the firewalls in place, but I’d hate to have to play the game in an unsafe manner anyway.
I was using AVG and had put the applications in to the allow list (and in Windows Defender) but I was still getting the warning message.
The update looks to have fixed the problem for me.
I can now play longer than two minutes.
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate any help I can get.
What antivirus program are you using? Bitdefender total security, Malwarebytes
Have you updated your antivirus to the latest virus definitions? Yes, and scanned.
Have you restarted your computer before disabling your antivirus / launching the game again? No: When rebooting the virsscanner will reload. This is typical behaviour of a virusscanner.
Have you tried disabling your antivirus entirely (not just exiting it or silencing it)? Yes for both.
I can play the game (at least single player) then but dont whish to in that state.
Other things I tried:
Added it to the whitelist with Any Network, Any protocol, Any traffic direction, Any ports and Any ip and access to folders i usually dont want to give it access to.(drops out in under 1 minute consistently)
Step two:
Gave it access to the secure folder (drops out after 5 mintes leaving me sobbing cuz I thought I’d fixed it)
Step 3:
Updated Nvidea drivers (still drops out)
Step 4: Killed a LOT of programs that were running in the background
Q: Could it be two different processes interfering? Because of the time difference.
Q2: Could you make an update to the program and make the error message tell me what process is interfering specifically/ or is that system information you don’t have within the app?
Q3: Can I run some sort of diagnostic tool locally that would give you guys information you can use?
What are my options? Will you contact Bitdefender?
EDIT:
Found another hint - I noticed that when I disable antivirus when I start the game and then reactivate it actually works. Thinking about that further, it seems BD either starts a polling process for each starting application, one that AOE interferes with or the other way around. Maybe AOE makes contact with a server at some point in time?
EDIT2: Since I have started AOE one time without BD on it runs also when BD turned back on. Still have to restart though. Must be a registration issue.
I’m using Bitdefender 2020, just bought it 2 days ago
I did disable it, also the windows defender firewall was disabled, added AoE to the firewall exception list, dunno. My bitdefender doesnt have firewall because it is the standard option, it tells me to upgrade if i want the firewall
Yes it is the latest
Restarted 10 times with no effect, sometimes crashes one minute after i get in a map, sometimes i get to tool age and then exits
Just tried the game, happened again. Also theres no update that I can see that was applied (unless it was already applied and I didn’t see it), tried the “Get updates” button on the windows store but no new update. I’m on build 27805 with no option to update.
The build is still distributing to the Windows Store! We’ll update the patch notes post when that has been successfully pushed to live. Thanks for your patience in the meantime!
Thanks @HkNeT007, @ChaosX1987, @Fat0n, @Heat3999, @LupaWolf152, @TheRealNiQuil, and @CallingSpice993 for the additional details! We will use this information to see what we can do to avoid this type of issue in the future, so thank you for passing that along and for your patience while we get this squared away.
So for those with Bitdefender:
Close BD by doing the thing in the video, then press play on aoe and get ingame, then alt-tab and turn BD back on.
This is the most shittiest of work-arounds but it does work for now.
Have you tried disabling your antivirus entirely (not just exiting it or silencing it)?
Yes
Have you updated your antivirus to the latest virus definitions?
Of curse!
Have you restarted your computer before disabling your antivirus / launching the game again?
Yes, that was my first way to fix the problem
I ask Steam for refound
Before you return the game, try launching it again! The issue was fixed on Steam on Tuesday, and will be fixed in the Windows Store as soon as the new build can be pushed. If you continue to have trouble, let me know and I will pass that information along to the development team.