Is minetest a virus?

AngelX007GR
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Is minetest a virus?

by AngelX007GR » Post

Idk tbh
I have downloaded it on my mobile but when i downloaded on my win10 laptop i tried opening it but a screen appeared saying that opening this file my pc could be at risk.Can someone tell me what to do?

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TenPlus1
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by TenPlus1 » Post

Angel, make sure you get any software from a reputable source like the actual site itself, if however you have already done this it would be a false positive from your virus software (not all of them have great detection).

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by voxelproof » Post

AngelX007GR wrote:Idk tbh
I have downloaded it on my mobile but when i downloaded on my win10 laptop i tried opening it but a screen appeared saying that opening this file my pc could be at risk.Can someone tell me what to do?
Your operating system is very smart. Of course Minetest is a very dangerous virus and you should never have even thought of using it (to say nothing of trying to install and open it on your laptop). Try Minecraft instead; it is entirely safe, non-viral sofware, with no risk for your OS. And remember -- no risk, no fun.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Andrey01 » Post

Who said Minetest is a virus? What a nonsense at all. If it would be the clever developers would fix it in next versions soon. It works fine as on laptop as on desktop.

Voxelproof, if minetest is very dangerous virus what do you play it for?

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by voxelproof » Post

Andrey01 wrote:Voxelproof, if minetest is very dangerous virus what do you play it for?
For fun, Andrey, for fun :)
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by AngelX007GR » Post

ok i just opened it sorry for the topic thx for the info tho

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Andrey01 » Post

voxelproof wrote:
Andrey01 wrote:Voxelproof, if minetest is very dangerous virus what do you play it for?
For fun, Andrey, for fun :)
But why are you stating minetest is dangerous virus if it IS quite playable? I am just wondering this. Then on the logic minecraft is a virus, too.

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by AngelX007GR » Post

Andrey01 wrote:
voxelproof wrote:
Andrey01 wrote:Voxelproof, if minetest is very dangerous virus what do you play it for?
For fun, Andrey, for fun :)
But why are you stating minetest is dangerous virus if it IS quite playable? I am just wondering this. Then on the logic minecraft is a virus, too.
Because a screen appeared saying opening this file my PC could be at risk

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Andrey01 » Post

The file that launches minetest?

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by MineYoshi » Post

AngelX007GR wrote:Because a screen appeared saying opening this file my PC could be at risk
Where did you download the game from? If it was from the minetest.net webpage then for sure the warning is just a false positive.
Have a nice day! :D

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by rubenwardy » Post

The warning just means that zips and executable files can be dangerous, because the can be. This is not something to worry about at all
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Festus1965 » Post

AngelX007GR wrote:but a screen appeared saying that opening this file my pc could be at risk.
* every new program is a risk at first ...
you have to know where you got it ...

* what to do ?
stop using microsoft or even a pc, and also android can have virus, stop that also
Last edited by Festus1965 on Mon Aug 13, 2018 03:57, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by ChimneySwift » Post

Windows 10 is great for warning you that absolutely everything might be a virus.

The prompt is there to make people think twice before running software they don't fully trust. The solution isn't to stop using windows, throw your phone down the drain, and move to Green Bank, West Virginia, it's just to make sure that you know what you're running.

If you got it from the official site (that's minetest.net BTW) then you should be good.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by AngelX007GR » Post

i did got it from the actual site

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by voxelproof » Post

AngelX007GR wrote: Because a screen appeared saying opening this file my PC could be at risk
I wonder if the same happens when somebody is installing MC ;)

I'll tell all of you something. There're some systemic features of Windows that strongly matter for the game's performance and developers which create professional games have huge advantage over indie game makers as far as tools used for optimization are concerned. I had serious troubles with MT concerning performance - it stuttered whenever the view range was larger than 80. Sometimes the game even froze to the point that it was impossible to shut down my laptop (the keybord and even the main switch became unresponsive).*

I've talked about the issue with a pal who is a professional geek. He gave me an advice which I followed and for which I'm really thankful. I downloaded and installed Fortnite. Then uninstalled it. (I never intented to play this killer-training trash). The problems with MT disappeared as if by a magic spell. Win 8.1.

I love you, Microsoft. In other way, but still.

(edit)
* This was not a Minetest-specific problem. I encountered it also in other game and because the circumstances causing probably system crash were the same (fast movements while loading new parts of a 3d landscape) I came to the conclusion that this was not an issue to be reported on this Forum.
Last edited by voxelproof on Mon Aug 13, 2018 17:49, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Napiophelios » Post

the only time this has happened to me was when downloading an extension my browser didn't recognize,
namely the 7z format of SFan5's windows builds. But it was chrome that gave the warning, not the OS.

It's not perfect, but Virustotal is a decent online scanner to use when in doubt.

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Festus1965 » Post

AngelX007GR wrote:i did got it from the actual site
It must be the original site ! That you might be able to see by the domain name.

And right, using Microsoft Windows is itself already similar to a virus on your hardware, as HERE you sure don't understand all the data they take without your strictly permission or knowledge.
And you cant read the source code ... thats the difference to minetest ... or open source even.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by ChimneySwift » Post

Festus1965 wrote:And right, using Microsoft Windows is itself already similar to a virus on your hardware
Not really what a virus is
A computer virus is a type of malicious software that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code.
Festus1965 wrote:as HERE you sure don't understand all the data they take without your strictly permission or knowledge.
Unless you accepted the usage agreement and privacy policy, which you did when you installed it.

There is almost certainly no issue, I've installed Minetest on 10-20 separate windows machines and most of them complain that it might be malware, it's just windows being (overly?) cautious.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Sylos » Post

voxelproof wrote:
AngelX007GR wrote: Because a screen appeared saying opening this file my PC could be at risk
I wonder if the same happens when somebody is installing MC ;)
If it doesn't, that's not automatically an indication of Microsoft being evil here. They know that Minecraft is trustworthy, so they can take the compiled Minecraft-EXE, create a hash of it and stick that in a database of trustworthy EXEs. That's called "signing an application". Theoretically, they could do the same for Minetest, but in order to ensure the same level of trust, they'd have to review the source code.

It's possible that they have a more lenient approach, for example sign anything that comes from a well-known publisher and passes an anti-virus check, but even at that standard, you can hardly expect them to have signed Minetest, as it is still a relatively small game.

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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by v-rob » Post

To be absolutely frank, Minetest is not a virus. The warning that you saw is just a prompt that Windows shows when you use certain programs. It's just warning you that minetest.exe could be a virus because Windows doesn't recognize it. If you downloaded Minetest off of the main website, then there's absolutely nothing to worry about.

This should answer the question, and no one else should comment unless they have something important to say on the topic.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by voxelproof » Post

v-rob wrote:To be absolutely frank, Minetest is not a virus. (...)This should answer the question, and no one else should comment unless they have something important to say on the topic.
Well, Minecraft is surely a handbook example of a viral game. And it gives a clue that it might be also a "virus of mind" (a term from memetics): looking at the dynamics of the growth of its playerbase it is obvious that it followed the pattern of a "snowball effect" (especially in the earlier stage of its growing popularity), which is characteristic for many contagious diseases.

But of course neither Minecraft nor Minetest fall into a category of malicious software as computer viruses do. To say nothing of being a disease ;)
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Festus1965 » Post

ChimneySwift wrote:...
Unless you accepted the usage agreement and privacy policy, which you did when you installed it.
...
Thats the official site, but we know how many data have been collected without we know it exactly.

And Microsoft was miss using our windows system to replicate itself, by making ours to part of like shared bit net, to let others download and update a windows faster, using OUR INTERNET connection and data-limits !!!

So how far it is from a virus ? Doing things that are not explained that we knew it before clearly ?
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by ChimneySwift » Post

...
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Festus1965 » Post

So going back to topic:
AngelX007GR wrote: ... downloaded on my win10 laptop i tried opening it but a screen appeared saying that opening this file my pc could be at risk. ...
Is that real the first other program he installed on his Win10 ... that he has to ask this question here ? as every new installation (if not MS progs itself) should have shown that message ?

That is my more concern about this post ... before I would be able to give a good answer.
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Re: Is minetest a virus?

by Wuzzy » Post

Minetest is not a virus, it's a drug, you just can't stop playing … ;-)

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