Solved BitDefender compatibility with smartguard

Hello,

Recently started the process of changing current antivirus (originally had Avast IS since EU server opening and had no major issues with GamezBD) and since bitdefender was a commonly recommended AV software, decided to try out the 2020 Total Security (paid) version.
However, despite having less system performance hit (which was the purpose of removing Avast), the gamezBD stopped launching properly.
Normally, after you click "start" in launcher, the Smartguard splash screen shows up for few seconds, then blackdesert64.bin opens. With bitdefender, the smartguard seems to get stuck and doesn't get past "launching" or "preparing to launch" state and closes, then returns to GamezBD launcher window.
Setting all possible exceptions & disabling parts of bitdefender firewalls had no effect.
Is there absolutely no way to start up with bitdefender total security (latest version updated) and no known workarounds?

Thanks in advance.

Note: Currently using "free" version (v.1.0.17.192) of Bitdefender, which initially was stuck at same state (starting>closing smartguard) but disabling "protection shield" once did the trick and gamezBD started up normally, disabling AV is not required anymore. However, staying with "free" version is not optimal, so I will have to change again (or return to bitdefender if possible)

 

Yeah sorry about that, but BitDefender is just not compatible with GamezBD-Smartguard.
You HAVE to uninstall it in order for the game to run.

You could have found the answer by making a forum search for "BitDefender" though, just so you know.

Also just in case you did not know this, having a third-party anti-virus is not necessary nowadays, it might have been 5-10 years ago, but nowadays with the internet protocols and security, it makes the Windows Defender quite able to identify and deal with threats.

 

Wow, sad. I quite liked that one, especially performance wise, compared to Avast.
Any other known ones which are 100% incompatible? Just to save time and not waste hours trying to set up exclusions?

I suppose not for basic users, though I don't consider myself as one. Either way in my case I would still prefer more protection than less.

Can't agree with this one, found a lot of user reports over last year who agree it's really below average in terms of virus detection.
Not to mention, I don't even have it available anyway =)

 

So I am curious, these sites where you found the user reports, would they have any advertizing, or perhaps even just directly paid by companies with economic interests in third-party anti-viruses?
Also ALL Windows 7-10 versions have an incorporated Windows Defender into the Operating System package, unless of course you are running a pirate-windows-version, in which case it might very well just be the pirate-version of windows that is clashing with the SmartGuard.

Just one last thing, I have been using computers since the "ZX Spectrum/Commodore 64", well before the internet was implemented world-wide, also had one of the first somewhat cheap 386x-PC's with dial-up-modem. So when you say that you aren't an average user, I am not quite sure what to tell you. I certainly am not an average user, been working with computers for approximately 40 years now. So when I tell you that the Windows Defender does its job-function as described, it is not because I am a Windows fan, quite the contrary really, but I have been with Windows since 3.5, so I know about the early virus and intruder threats, in comparison to nowadays, where it is not impossible to track a computer-user through various proxies and machine-address obscuring software, simply because of how sophisticated the internet protocols and routing points have become nowadays.

The idea that Windows Defender is not as good as any other anti-virus is mainly because companies still want to earn money, so they incentivize people to go forth and make noise about how bad an anti-virus is, in order to make money on their own product, not that hard to understand

To answer your question about the compatible anti-viruses, I do believe that we will have to ask the one person, who would really know about this, @Kolka if you could please be so kind, and tells us what anti-viruses do work with GamezBD?

 

You dont have to un-install bitdefender, just disable "advanced threat defence" in the "protection" tab..... log in and load up gamezBDO wait till the main option screen loads up then just re-enable the "advanced threat defence"

 

No, mostly user observations and opinions from reddit and other forums, usually no marketing bs. You might find a lot of reviews like this https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/is-windows-defender-good-enough-for-your-pc and while yes they usually recommend something specific as replacement (biased), this is still a common conclusion "defender is good, but not good enough". Personally I'd prefer to be "more" safe.

Only starting with 8 it was including some actual antivirus protection, anything before that was a really unreliable AV method and almost always replaced with 3rd party AV.

Not arguing there, it's possible, but currently most of my friends/relatives always use third party AV, even those on win10. Besides, it's not always about money, quite often free versions are recommended too (those have a different kind of price of course)

Hm, I'm positive I tried disabling every possible option when troubleshooting smartguard, but I'll give it another go and update later.

Update:
This actually works, which is strange, because setting a full exception in same module for launcher+both smartguard processes does not help.
Still not optimal, because it it's not saved as non-threat in bitdefender and you have to either disable it on each launch or keep the module disabled (idk how much of an impact it has on security yet)

Still, thanks a lot for this tip, @adyapopoff

 

Yeah its not ideal but only takes a few seconds to disable then re-enable each time you want play bdo plus i wouldnt keep it disabled as there is no need to once the game is loaded

 

Also, just in case you did not know, computer viruses do not just spontaniously appear on your computer, they are downloaded as files, or through weblinks that do the same, so it isn't so much needed the re-enabling unless you are doing a lot of other stuff with your computer, granted that many if not most players, leave the BDO-game playing in the tray or background, while going on about their day. Ahh well, kinda defeated my own argument there

 

It appears there was a bitdefender program update this night/morning which now resulted in gamezbd not launching at all, regardless of exceptions & disabled protection screens.
Launch passes smartguard loading stage and open the bdo black screen, sometimes manages to start the gamezbd splash screen and closes back to desktop, usually closes before the splash.

Any known workarounds now?
I'm certain I'm not the only with non-free bitdefender version playing this server just by this thread alone.
I'll try to contact bitdefender support regarding .bin executables (which so far seems the only reason it doesn't apply exceptions properly) but for now I don't see any temporary solutions except switching AV software.

Update:
This is really weird, but the crash on launch was not caused by bitdefender update. Once I saw the same crash on free version, I decided to do a File Check, and it fixed the issue (also deleted my documents folder, but I always keep a backup since bitdefender did delete it before already).
Really baffled how my client could become corrupted like this without any prior crashes / errors yesterday.

I also wrote to Bitdefender support about adding .bin files exceptions properly, maybe they'll consider that improvement eventually. For now using same workaround with disabling Adv. Threat Defense still works.

 

Yeah, Black Desert had this problem with corrupted files since ever... And it may not be a problem untill we come across with it in-game.
I always suggest repeatable force checks until the patcher shows nothing more to repair.
I would also suggest uninstalling BitDefender since it's not compatible and it may corrupt the game files, there are other antivirus that runs just fine with GameZBD (although Windows Defender has being enough for me).
Btw, since it's not compatible, I'll give the topic as solved, but I'll keep it open so you guys may find a workaround as you did before.