If your antivirus warns you

Windows may tell you the game is dangerous, or quietly delete part of it after you
install. The game is not infected. This page explains why it happens, what to do,
and how to check for yourself rather than taking our word for it.

Why it happens

Conquer Online came out in 2006. Games from that era were squeezed down to save
space on the small hard drives of the day.

Years later, some viruses started using that same squeezing trick to hide themselves
from antivirus programs. Antivirus software cannot see inside a squeezed-up file
without unpacking it first, so when it finds a very old file packed that way, it plays
safe and guesses "this might be dangerous".

It is guessing from the shape of the file. It has not found anything harmful
inside it.

Why we cannot just fix it: the file is the original 2006 game, unchanged. Altering
it would break the game — and it would still be a file from 2006, so it would still be
guessed at.

What you might see

• "Windows protected your PC" when you run the installer
• "Threat found" or "Virus detected" from Windows Security
• The game disappearing from its folder shortly after installing
• The game refusing to start, with no message at all

That last one catches people out — nothing appears to go wrong, the game simply never
opens, because the file it needs was removed in the background.

How to stop it

1. If you see "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway.
2. Let the installer finish.
3. Then tell Windows to leave the game folder alone:
   • Click Start and type Windows Security, then open it
   • Click Virus & threat protection
   • Under Virus & threat protection settings, click Manage settings
   • Scroll to the bottom, to Exclusions
   • Click Add or remove exclusions, then Add an exclusion → Folder
   • Choose the folder you installed Dynasties into
4. If the game was already deleted, install it again now.

Using a different antivirus? The same idea applies — every one of them has a list
called exclusions, exceptions, or allowed folders.

Would rather check first?

Good instinct, and you should not take a stranger's word for what to run on your
computer. You can look the file up without downloading anything.

The game file is called Conquer.exe, and its fingerprint is:

4F0B40177D7A74D0F0347EB9B8946C850AB9869929980A4061EBF7A68D343E65

Paste that into virustotal.com and it will show you what
dozens of other antivirus engines think of that exact file.

If you are still not comfortable, do not install it. We would much rather you
walked away than clicked past a warning you did not understand.

What we will not do

We will not ship an installer that turns off your antivirus for you.

An unsigned program that quietly adds itself to your antivirus exclusions is doing
precisely what real malware does, and no amount of good intentions makes that a
reasonable thing to do to someone's computer. Adding the exclusion is your decision,
made knowingly, or not at all.

Still stuck?

Ask in our Discord — the #support channel has a button that opens a private ticket
only you and the staff can see.