It should be noted that av/am software with zero-day protection can severely impact performance.

I'm using MSE as my protection, and I noticed a hit in the performance of Nexus. I went into the settings and set the following processes to be ignored so it doesn't inject code into your application.

Nexus.exe
WsxService.exe

Voila, it improved performance markedly. Others complaining about response may be the victim of over-zealous protection.

Of course, this does leave you open to someone who has decided to hack Nexus. Proceed at your own risk.

Have a good day,
Grouch

Provided the user has downloaded Nexus or other Winstep applications from the official Winstep web site (always the preferred place) *or* reputable download sites like Cnet, Download.com, BaixaKi, Softpedia, etc... he should be at no risk.

However, and I can't stress this enough, you should NEVER download software from sites like RapidShare, MegaUpload, Fileupload, etc... Winstep software downloaded from those types of sites is not only nearly never the latest version as it will often come with nasty 'add-ons'.

Something else to be on the lookout for regarding AV software:

If you are installing an update or a Winstep application and the installer gives you an Access Denied error for something in the Public Documents folder, check any software you have installed that has features related to Ransomware protection.

BitDefender, for instance, was causing this issue in a user's PC. To solve it the Winstep installer application had to be added to its list of trusted applications.

Ransomware protection makes a lot of sense these days, but AV solutions must do it intelligently so as not to interfere with the normal functioning of your system and other applications.

In this case BitDefender should have shown a dialog explaining what was happening to the user - with steps to correct it - when it blocked access to the installer. Instead it showed nothing, which resulted in a lot of time wasted trying to diagnose the problem.

It could also have easily resulted in a lost sale, with the user thinking that the application itself was buggy instead.