Saimaa ringed seal, Rantasalmi, Finland. Photo: Jan Ebr and Ivana Ebrová, CC BY 4.0
Security
Security and installation. What the warnings mean.
When you install Atlas from the .exe file, Windows may show a blue warning, and a virus scan may report a few detections. This page explains where they come from and how you can check the file you downloaded yourself.
In short
- The easiest way is the Microsoft Store. Microsoft has checked and signed that version, so no warnings appear.
- The Mac version is signed and notarized by Apple, so macOS does not block the first launch.
- The .exe file is the same program, but it does not have a code signature yet. That is why Windows shows a warning.
- Every published file has a SHA-256 checksum that lets you verify the file yourself.
1. The blue Windows window is not a virus scan result
When you open the .exe installer, Windows may show the window "Windows protected your PC". It is shown by Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. It only checks whether the publisher of the file already has enough download history. The window appears for practically every new program whose publisher Microsoft does not know yet.
If you want to continue, first choose More info and then Run anyway. But do not click past the window blindly, for our program or anyone else's. Check the checksum first using the steps in section 3.
2. What virus scans show
When we scanned the installer on 15 August 2026, four or five out of about seventy scanners reported a detection. All detections came from guessing scanners based on machine learning. The scanners that recognise known malware found nothing:
| Scanner | Type | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender | Signatures and cloud | Clean |
| BitDefender | Signatures | Clean |
| ESET | Signatures | Clean |
| Kaspersky | Signatures | Clean |
| Sophos | Signatures | Clean |
| Fortinet | Signatures | Clean |
| A few machine learning scanners | Guess based on structure | Generic detection, no named malware |
Guessing scanners score the structure of the file. An unsigned, compressed installer scores badly no matter what is inside it. Our installation package has:
- no obfuscation and no UPX packing, because packed programs are one of the strongest triggers for guesses
- no .NET assemblies and no runtime code generation
- standard LZMA2 compression, which looks like random data and raises the entropy measurement
- publisher details in every program file: Tarmex Oy, product name and version
The absence of UPX packing and the publisher details are checked automatically in every build. If either changes, the build stops.
3. Check the download yourself
A checksum is the fingerprint of a file. It changes if even one byte of the file changes. If the checksum of the file you downloaded is the same as below, you have exactly the file we published.
| File | SHA-256 |
|---|---|
| AtlasForgeX_Setup.exe Windows installer, 15.9 MB | 7bd6ec1fc296467cf4807bf38feabac96ca669f03c5019d37dd8ca97185a3e65 |
| AtlasLauncher.exe Standalone launcher, 14.1 MB | 527522960ea5dfaf5039d30b4e342e140a09e3ac3ee639fb72ef2faa4b0edfd1 |
Open PowerShell in your Downloads folder and run:
Get-FileHash .\AtlasForgeX_Setup.exe -Algorithm SHA256
Compare the result to the one above. Upper and lower case do not matter, the characters do. If the checksums differ, do not open the file and tell us. You can also paste the checksum into the VirusTotal search and see every scanner's result for exactly this file.
4. Code signing
The Microsoft Store and Mac versions are signed. The .exe file needs a separate Authenticode certificate, after which Windows shows Tarmex Oy as the publisher. A certificate does not remove the SmartScreen window at once. Microsoft ended the instant reputation of EV certificates in March 2024, and reputation now builds up from downloads over months.
5. The warning only concerns the first installation
Once Atlas is installed, updates arrive inside the program through our own update channel. Every update has a checksum and a signature. Updates do not go through the browser, so no SmartScreen window appears.
The installer on the download page is kept the same on purpose. Windows reputation is tied to a specific file, and new versions arrive through the in-program update anyway.
6. Who is behind the program
Atlas is developed by Tarmex Oy, a registered Finnish limited company. You can check the company with business ID 3579018-8 in the Finnish YTJ register or the PRH open data. If anything on this page does not match what you see, write to atlasforgex@proton.me.
We explain personal data in the privacy policy.