Struggling with FocusMax (was: Struggling with ACP Installation)

[Roger Baylon]

Does anyone know if Virt.exe is a normal part of the ACP installation process? Is it malware?

[William Bristow]

Roger.

You will probably have to wait for a definitive answer from Bob when he is back in the office on Monday during regular office hours but running a search on my Windows 10 test computer and the live Windows 10 observatory computer does not find any files with that name. I no longer have any Windows 7 systems running so can’t answer for that platform.

The only online reference I can find to virt.exe is related to a linux program, OpenSUSE, which wouldn’t be a part of ACP, AFAIK.

Are you certain it was just virt.exe and not migratefromvirt.exe which is a valid ACP file, or, officevirt.exe which was an old MS Office component?

Either way, drew a blank on this question.

William.

[Roger Baylon]

Dear William,

Yes, the file is migratefromvirt.exe - thanks for explaining that it is a valid file.
I said "no" when asked to authorize, so I guess I should have said "yes."
Warmly,
Roger

Roger.





You will probably have to wait for a definitive answer from Bob when he is back in the office on Monday during regular office hours but running a search on my Windows 10 test computer and the live Windows 10 observatory computer does not find any files with that name. I no longer have any Windows 7 systems running so can’t answer for that platform.

The only online reference I can find to virt.exe is related to a linux program, OpenSUSE, which wouldn’t be a part of ACP, AFAIK.

Are you certain it was just virt.exe and not migratefromvirt.exe which is a valid ACP file, or, officevirt.exe which was an old MS Office component?

Either way, drew a blank on this question.

William.

[William Bristow]

Hello Roger.

I don’t know when “migratefromvirt.exe” is called or what it’s function is within ACP but probably best to open your A.V. program and remove it from the blocked list then rerun ACP’s installer.

If you are running Windows 10 and have enabled the recent anti-ransomeware function in Windows Defender and “Controlled Folder Access” flagged the file as needing authorisation then you will need to open the “Controlled Folder Access” feature and manually add “migratefromvirt.exe” to the allowed programs whitelist and then rerun ACP’s installer (without removing ACP first).

Appears that Windows Defender’s aggressive “Controlled Folder Access” feature in Windows 10 is causing problems in quite a few applications.

William.

[Roger Baylon]

So far, I have been able to run the ACP Catalog checker. So I have achieved that. But I cannot run ACP.

I am not sure that this is related, but I can't get Focusmax to install either. Maybe there is a connection. Maxim DL does run fine and I use it almost every night without problems.

[William Bristow]

So far, I have been able to run the ACP Catalog checker. So I have achieved that. But I cannot run ACP.

I am not sure that this is related, but I can't get Focusmax to install either. Maybe there is a connection. Maxim DL does run fine and I use it almost every night without problems.

Roger.

Are you using Windows Defender on Windows 10 as your AV program and have you enabled anti-ransomeware protection in Windows Security?

If so, type "Controlled Folder Access" (without quotes) in the lower toolbar search box and from the results list click on "Controlled folder access, System Settings" which will take you direct to that feature.

If you have Controlled Folder Access (CFA) enabled then currently the majority of astronomy applications available will not install correctly and even if they do install then they may not run correctly unless you manually configure CFA accordingly to allow those apps to write log files and user files etc to any location on the hard drive.

By default with CFA enabled unauthorised applications are only allowed to write to the user desktop, any other location is blocked and this will cause most installations to fail.

If this applies in your case then decide whether you want the hassle of having to configure every application individually for CFA permissions.
If your computer is only used in the observatory and you do not access email attachments or install software from unknown sources then it will be easier to switch off CFA permanently and foregoe anti-ransomeware protection.

If you use the computer for general email, on-line financial, family documents or business and need anti-ransomware protection then you will need to work around the problems of CFA in Windows 10.

If the above applies in your case then to install FocusMax, download the installer and carry out a manual AV scan, then temporarily switch off CFA in Windows security to allow you to run the installer, when installation is complete switch CFA back on and then click on the link "Allow an app through Controlled folder access" then on the following page click "+ Add an allowed app" and click "Browse all apps" then navigate to (for a typical install):
C:\Program Files (x86)\FocusMax V4 and add FocusMax.exe to the allowed Apps list, then repeat for FocusMaxUpdate.exe and unins000.exe.

You will need to repeat the procedure for all of the ACP .exe's, any ASCOM tools .exe's that you use and MaxIm's too

Depending on which ACP version you are installing these will include all the .exe's in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Obs Control,
C:\Program Files (x86)\ACP Scheduler,
C:\Program Files (x86)\ACPHorizonEditor
C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6

With CFA enabled, any app that either does not install or run as expected then the first place to check is by clicking on the "+ Add an allowed app" link then click the "Recently blocked apps" link, if you can match the blocked .exe in that list to the application or installer you are trying to run then you can click that .exe to add it to the allowed apps list and then rerun the installer or start the application.

A few tips:
If you uninstall an application after manually adding it to CFA's allowed white list then its permissions will be automatically removed from the white list and you will have to manually re-add it to the white list after re-running the installer.
This is causing all sorts of issues because as a result of CFA's blocking the apps associated uninstall.exe's, programs are not always cleanly removed and reinstalls often fail requiring a manual cleanup of registry settings etc.
Occasionally, following Microsoft's Windows "Patch Tuesday" Quality Updates, Windows Feature Updates and Windows Defender/AV Protection Updates CFA's white list is purged of all non-Microsoft applications and you will have to re-enter all the previous .exe's into the white list that you allowed through CFA.

This issue of Windows 10 anti-ransomeware protection switching on CFA is catching out app developers across the Windows software market since it has been poorly documented for both app developers and end users and most app installers are not written to check the status of CFA during the install process and are not submitted to Microsoft for pre-approval and automatic addition to CFA's white list (which I think is limited to those apps available via the Microsoft Store, not 100% sure on that one).

If this applies in your case then hopefully the above will provide enough information to resolve the issues for you, if not Bob will have to help you out when he is back in the office.

William.

[Bob Denny]

William thank you for again coming to the rescue of our customers with your knowledge of Windows adventures.

Roger, we don't work weekends here so that's why I didn't answer your Saturday post. And William's info is probably what you need to get going.

At our ASCOM Core Team meeting yesterday I saw the email you sent to Peter on this as well. We were discussing that long running support ticket on the ASCOM Help group. I plan to send out an Alert to our customers and post a Banner link replacing the (Good News) one above. This new Microsoft security feature will unfortunately create surprise failures of working software as well installation failures of new software. I need to find out what the "right" way to deal with this new security feature. Silently defeating it (if that is possible) doesn't seem right. Instead, at least in the short term providing people with a list of executables to whitelist is a start. Thank you for doing so here.

[William Bristow]

You are more than welcome Bob.

I don't know how useful my reply will be, I suspect that most users of ACP will be familiar with these Windows AV/Windows Defender CFA problems but they may catch out newcomers to Windows 10.

I have edited out a few typo's in my reply to Roger and tidied up a few of the sentences, beyond that my knowledge of Windows 10 is really thin and any further attempt at explanation would make a real app developer cringe..!

William.

[Roger Baylon]

Hello Bob and Hello William,
Thanks for all the help--which seems to have solved my problem. You are doing a great job.
To give you an update. Here is what I have done.
1. I followed William's suggestions about the problems with Windows Defender and anti-Ransomware. The anti-ransomware and some other windows defender features are now turned off.
2. I am not sure that this action totally solved the problem, because I found a little blue circle spinning on my desktop. I don't know how long the blue circle has been spinning there. After following various tips on the internet, I was able to get rid of the blue circle by pressing ctrl-alt-del.
3. Now ACP seems to be up and functioning and I have entered the necessary information into the ACP observatory. I look forward to trying it out.
4. That is Great! BUT - I don't know if this is the result of getting rid of the ant-ransomware or because of pushing ctrl-alt-del!!!
5. I am still unable to install FocusMax but maybe I can use the Optec solution instead? (I have an Optec FocusLynx).
Warmly,
Roger

[Roger Baylon]

Hello Bob and Hello William,
Thanks for all the help--which seems to have solved my problem. You are doing a great job.
To give you an update. Here is what I have done.
1. I followed William's suggestions about the problems with Windows Defender and anti-Ransomware. The anti-ransomware and some other windows defender features are now turned off.
2. I am not sure that this action totally solved the problem, because I found a little blue circle spinning on my desktop. I don't know how long the blue circle has been spinning there. After following various tips on the internet, I was able to get rid of the blue circle by pressing ctrl-alt-del.
3. Now ACP seems to be up and functioning and I have entered the necessary information into the ACP observatory. I look forward to trying it out.
4. That is Great! BUT - I don't know if this is the result of getting rid of the ant-ransomware or because of pushing ctrl-alt-del!!!
5. I am still unable to install FocusMax but maybe I can use the Optec solution instead? (I have an Optec FocusLynx).
Warmly,
Roger

After success with ACP download and Installation, I am trying to install the ACP Planner - but a password seems to be necessary to open the ACP Planner installer. Would this be the DC3 password or my computer password?

Seems more likely that I am doing something wrong.

Warmly, roger