Download blocked by browser on Windows 11 — "Virus detected"

[M-F-Tushar]

Description
When attempting to download the WakaTime Desktop installer for Windows 11 using Chrome and Opera, both browsers block the download and display a "Virus detected" warning.

Browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Opera

Operating System:

• Windows 11

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Navigate to the WakaTime Desktop releases page.
2. Click on the Windows installer (wakatime-win32-x64.exe).
3. The browser blocks the download and issues a "Virus detected" alert.

Expected Behavior:
The installer should download without being flagged as malicious.

Actual Behavior:
The download is blocked with a "Virus detected" error message.

Additional Context:

• I am downloading directly here: https://wakatime.com/windows
• Could you please advise on whether this is expected behavior, and if any workaround or updated signing method is available?

[rribeiro-42]

I'm having the same issue, I also tried downloading through the terminal however windows also blocks the execution accusing the file to contain viruses

[alanhamlett]

Virustotal doesn't report any vendors having false positives... not sure why Chrome would block the download from GitHub releases:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/ca83b3129498e4d4adec6cdd6152278d5a45e7c2beaadeb7eca0d906c15d4dae

[rribeiro-42]

any updates on the topic?

[Keshabkjha]

Facing the same issue, but i can this topic was created 2 weeks ago. No one from developer team responded till now.

[rribeiro-42]

I had to allow the execution in windows defender to make it work, there are 2 threats it identifies, one as a keylogger and a second as a trojan

[naipret]

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/73929453764549244a4d567f704c1db489999bdd46d14b1f324236df078189ad

Same issue with latest release v2.1.7

[alanhamlett]

Woah that's never lit up so red before. Normally if this happens we report the false positives and they get unflagged within a day or two. I'll do that now.

[Gavin-Qiao]

I still have the same issue with Edge:

[alanhamlett]

Duplicate of #108. We'll discuss the fix over there.