Augustus Caesar

You don't need to uninstall Windows AV. Simply disable it in Settings if you are having difficulty downloading or installing RailMaster. Follow my instructions on the RM Help Site detailed at the top of this forum, Hornby RailMaster and TrackMaster.

Hi Mark Absolutely no problem at all. Glad to help and pleased you have now got RM Pro activated. The conclusion could only be the program being blocked by Windows Defender (which you call Windows AV). During my years, and they are many, in IT I learned a very long time ago to 'track' the error step by step, look at the error code and go from there. It's not as easy as that though and an error code is never 100% accurate. That is the computer telling you its best guess at what is wrong. You may already know all of that of course and I won't elaborate. Anyway, at least you are sorted now. I do appreciate you coming back and letting everyone know you have had success. This should help others too if this arises again. Regards AC

Mark Your error message you display shows a code of 577. This is, or could be, a Windows Defender error while using third party anti-virus software. You say you totally removed McAfee and tried activation again. If I may, I suggest thoroughly removing McAfee with their own removal tool. The reason for this is because the usual uninstaller can leave active files behind which Defender can see as a PUP, Potentially Unwanted Program. It may not even be flagged. If you still have McAfee U installed try and find the aggressive uninstall file on their site. If you find one, it could be version specific too, then reinstall the AV program and THEN use the tool. That should forcibly remove even active files. The system will likely look for a restart and this should be done. Just for surety disable Defender within Windows settings and turn off all 'live' protection. Then have a go at activation. Hope this helps. AC

Hi Brian... Good to hear from you although not good to see your situation is ongoing re RM and the networking problem. When you were in communication with myself I was convinced I was giving you correct information and that a sync issue was the cause. That could only have been caused by RM itself as networking solutions offered up should have worked. They would have done, obviously, but I am rather annoyed with the RM author who has seemingly offered LD since around 2015 or whatever and a supposed major upgrade, as you also point out, in December last year. Obviously this is not forthcoming just yet and it may be some way off. Hopefully the guy will sort the bugs out for you and then come up with the upgrade. I sometimes wonder if the fella has reached his programming capacity or is just tired of the software. He still has a decent attitude toward support though so at least he might have something up his sleeve. Hope he gets the fix to you soon.

Windows Defender is always the program or utility at fault with this type of download. It can give several false positives. It's always advisable to disable this temporarily in order for you complete these downloads. It will not interfere generally with installations but take that with a little caution. You may find a warning that will stop the installation but will offer a button to continue anyway. Once done, if disabled, re-enable Defender. You can actually run Defender along with a third party AV program but not more than one other. Two AV programs, whether alongside Defender or not, is definitely not recommended. Each program will see the definition files from the other as a possible virus and can cause all sorts of issues. I do not install paid for versions of AV products or similar for malware or spyware. They are not required as the same component part for that protection is always free anyway. you pay for what I consider to be bloatware. The choice is yours of course. Your best options for free versions of these programs are a free anti-virus product, free anti-malware product and free anti-spyware product. I discuss these on my Help Site as detailed above. I am not associated with any of those products or their authors and have no vested interest either apart from helping you all out here.

Much appreciated Fishmanoz. Always nice to receive support. Thank you.

Not at all Rob. The Help Site has been up long enough for anyone to spot an email link to myself and the fact it is unrelated to Hornby and the forum just adds to the fact that contact to myself, in reference to the site and its content, should be made from that platform and not through here. I myself rarely even mention the site on this forum and, yes, of course there is a permanent link to it, but that was made through a request from Hornby and with permission from themselves too. Don't worry about it.

@P-Henny Before I received a private note from one of our Moderator team I had no knowledge of this thread. I had received no other clue about any information on my Help Site being either 'mistaken' or 'incorrect'. Suffice to say I have had a torrid week with my son being in hospital and such thoughts and processes around any other active area of my life had to take a back seat. No communication was received by myself to alert me of any 'errors'. If I had received such communication then the correction or edit would be made immediately. Quite why you felt it necessary to ask the Mods to contact me when I am a Mod myself is rather odd to say the least. Secondly, the statement I gave on site about the 'Restore' function was taken from data Hornby themselves released and my site was uploaded before I had purchased my own copy of the Pro version of RM so I could not have known it was published in error or by omission by Hornby. It is not currently installed or active on my would be RM laptop. Thirdly, to say this is an easy 'mistake for AC to make' should maybe have been worded a little better. I did not make any mistake and that particular sentence does me no favours. I will leave that there and will not think any the worse for it. Fourth, you offer up a 'helpful' suggestion as to the correct words for the site where the Pro Pack is installed on user's systems... that was not required nor is it seen by myself as helpful. I know what the situation is and that Hornby made the mistake, for whatever reason, and I know how to correct it. For user's reading this I have already made the correction and did not use your words, close to mine as they are. Fifth, self reporting a post wouldn't make me react any quicker to any situation until I had read the said post in my own time. We Moderators are volunteers and the tasks utilised by ourselves take up a huge amount of our time behind the scenes and being 'pushy' does not help. Sixth, following on to your follow up post I find that rather annoying. So, I have been led to water but refused to take a drink... I rather refute that. Take a look at my third sentence, first paragraph, and there you will see the reason I have not been able to react in any way. Seventh, you say your actions have fallen of 'death ears'. Rather, it should be 'deaf ears'. Just thought I would point that one out. And, thankfully and finally... you say at least you tried. Well, I can say you didn't try hard enough. There is a link on my Help Site for site visitors to contact myself if questions are raised, errors found or where suggestions can be passed on in relation to the site. That was the correct form of contact in order to get to myself from the the outset. Why? The Help Site is written with approval from Hornby for the use of certain content etc. and is absolutely not connected to Hornby in any way. So using Hornby's own forum to get in touch in the way you have is not the way to do this. Please use the email link on site if further contact is required about content based on that site. @ 96RAF As always your wisdom is acknowledged and I thank you for your communication to myself which brought this to my attention. I am unsure if P-Henny would apologise for being hasty or not with his posts and words given what I have said re my son but I do not seek one nor do I not. It pains me when folk seek answers within hours or even a couple of days to things that are just not that important in the greater scheme of things. I talk here of my site content and not the initial issue the OP had. I will leave this one for all to digest if they wish and no offence is meant nor taken.

I use Windows 11 Pro and also Firefox and Opera as my browsers but test using Edge when developing websites. I have no issues like either of those listed above in the two posts thus far. All links work well and first time. Any other behaviours are down to the machine you are using and how the settings are within. This could be OS related but are more likely your browser settings. Even the daftest and most nonsensical setting, where you would expect no fault to be derived, can cause a reaction such as those you find. Another is how the code is interpreted on your PC as HTML is done on the PC (when you access a page) whereas PHP and other server side languages are interpreted on external servers and downloaded to your PC as HTML. This is, however, beyond your control. What it may show you is how each PC can translate or inteprate languages as they hit your browser. If, for example, one piece of code is interpreted on your machine as it reaches you in a certain order it may be interpreted slightly differently on another PC if the code is received in a different order. This is usually down to how variables are programmed within the site code. Virus checkers can also have a baring don't forget especially if you have 'live' site tracking where the software looks out for malicious wares on each site you visit. The definition files can each interprate code differently and read such strings of code as malicious and stop it downloading. Thus rendering your site usage to be a little narky. This is where, occasionally, lazy programing and non-checking comes in... or doesn't if you follow.

A slightly late response but something worth adding maybe to Windows S Mode for the curious... A lot of PC's or laptops are being sold these days with Windows S Mode activated from the off. Microsoft say this version of Windows is for those with security in mind. In my mind this is purely a small gimmick from Micorsoft as the mode, as already stated above, only allows apps to be downloaded and installed from the Microsoft Store. The second point is that S mode will only allow you to use Microsoft Edge as your browser. You cannot install and run the likes of Firefox, Safari, Opera or any other commercial or free browser product. A further point is that once you decide to come out of S mode, say to download and install Firefox for example, then you CANNOT go back to S mode. Once you are out of it you are out of it. The only way back is to reinstall Windows. If you are running this mode in Windows 10 and want to upgrade to Windows 11 you can in S mode and then into Standard Windows mode afterward. Again, there is no going back. This can only be done in the Home version too as the Pro version does not allow the change.

Unfortuantely Chrome is just as bad as the others for this effect. Edge has bugs which kick in now and again and you have to effect changes in the settings to allow you to stay logged in, don't clear cache settings etc. by turning these settings to what you would not want then turning them back on or whatever. These bugs are well known and talked about across the web. Edge doesn't actually use cookies to save your passwords etc. within the cookie. It uses something called 'local data encryption' which is more secure. **Edge stores passwords encrypted on disk using AES and the encryption key is saved in the operating system storage area. This is the technique local data encryption. Although not all of the browser's data is encrypted, sensitive data such as passwords, credit card numbers, and cookies are encrypted when they are saved. The Edge password manager encrypts passwords so they can only be accessed when a user is logged on to the operating system. Even if an attacker has admin rights, or offline access, and can get to the locally stored data, the system is designed to prevent the attacker from getting the plain text passwords of a user who isn't logged in. One thing you should be aware of here is that this forum may or may not even be using cookies. There is an alternative for designers to utilise and I have mentioned them previously. These are session variables. Now, a site can use either or both. I only ever use session variables. Generally speaking a session variable is usually only available while the browser is open to a set of specific windows or data areas where that variable is required to store data for the site visitor. That data can be traversed across the site as the visitor accesses different pages but is usally well organised. Once that area is vacated the session variable dies and is never used again. Well, the variable is but the data is lost where the variable is declared as empty or NULL. These are not stored in any way by a browser and are purely server side technologies meaning they stay with the website if you will. Cookies are always stored client side (your computer) and are available while the cookie data is set for it to remain so. They can be killed when a user leaves a site, after a short term or even a long time after. They sit on the user's drives and can be used several times until they are killed. This is done by the site author or done manually by the user when that user deletes cache, browser data or cookies etc. from their computer. Just in case some don't get the fact there are two types of cookies... first party cookies are those generated by the site and its author/s and are usually genuine and harmless. Third party cookies are generated by those who generally advertise their goods on a site and which could offer some other goodies where you are asked 'why not try this'? kind of stuff. These can contain some harmful stuff but not viruses etc. as the files are far too small. You should turn off third party cookie options in your browsers but leave first party ones switched on as these will contain your saved passwords etc. I supply this extra information purely as an interest only objective and some may find it useful.

With all due fairness and credit Robert my experience is somewhat different. I don't doubt for one moment you have been on a different journey with them given you show the evidence for it but as I stated I have been down that route and got a totally different reaction. Microsoft are a law unto themselves as is very well documented across the web and I will stick to my own story. So it is how it works for some and not others. There is no particular happy state of affairs here but one experience doesn't mean to say this is how they work one way or another. Absolutely no disrespect to your good self on this one by any means.

@Robert-370275 While reporting to Micorosft that a program is not a virus may be a good idea it is seldom taken by Microsoft to be literal as just about anyone can say their programs are virus free. They do not have the time or resources to test all programs submitted in this way and I have also reported this prior as a test which did not work. The download, if you read all the posts on the subject, can be fickle. Some days it will download just fine and others it will not. Hence the reason for my post above which outlines bypassing browser and OS controls to aid in its download without interference.

There are not three firewalls in the Windows Defender area. What you are probably looking at are the three areas where your network is defined as Public, Private or Domain. Public should not be connected to from any private household or anything other than public areas like libraries or cafe's for example (where you would connect via your tablet, mobile or laptop away from the home). Data is easily exposed on these networks. Private is used for the network connections made privately in homes and businesses where individual computers or a small network of computers are connected to the Internet. This connection is always what you should be connected to in the home unless you can use the type below. Domain networks are for those systems connected to the Internet or larger networks via a server or similar and will not normally be found in a household. Having said that I do run a server at home and for good reason. So this should explain what you are probably thinking is a three firewall setup. It is not. It is a single firewall with three different connection types to the Internet and/or network/s. As stated one should not run two firewalls on any one PC/laptop or whatever. The ONLY difference here is that your router will have a hardware firewall built in which normally should not be altered unless you know exactly what you are doing and a computer will have a software firewall (Windows Defender by default). Two software firewalls will compete and a third party firewall will usually switch off Windows Firewall by default in favour of its own. This is where RM issues can arise as has been spoken of many times on here. Software firewalls can be overwritten by a virus, trojan or spyware depending upon its complexity. Just for information... you should never run two anti-virus programs on one system as one will define the other as a possible virus when it reads the other's definiton files. Don't forget... malware and spyware software usually will not remove viruses or trojans and they are different to anti-virus products. A virus is not a trojan, spyware or malware and each is defined specifically different.

Apparently all we 'know of' at present is there MAY be a program update/s in December but no-one has a clue about what they are, what they contain or even if any update is going to be made. Sorry.

To go back in time and go over all of the previous ideas I have placed here and upon the Help Site would be unjustifiable and a waste so I will offer up a couple of different ideas since some are still having issues downloading the RM setup file from official sources. As stated I have outlined how to do this under normal circumstances and some folk are able to download without issue, some, however, still have problems. These problems are not based on a one issue one solution scenario but I will give two I have not offered up before... The first to try is a download from my own site, link based in the usual place, and I have checked this, with and without fault, and can state categorically the file is NOT riddled with a virus or trojan or anyone's grandma's sharp teeth... go to the site and look under "Prep Install". The download should be immediate and has been checked in W10 and W11 again today. This is also with all security on inside Windows etc. The second option is to load Windows 10 or 11 in "Safe Mode with Networking" where no virus software will be loaded up nor any Windows security software while you are in this mode. When Windows settles and loads up its basic set of drivers your usual display may seem a little out with larger graphics etc. and is normal. This is to save time and effort and also in case graphics drivers are the cause of a fault in some cases. Do not meddle with things here that you should normally would not meddle with because upon a system restart you may find Windows isnt' quite the same... Next, open a browser, go to my own site, if necessary, and download the file. If not working then find another source, official, and try that download again that you attempted during normal Windows functioning, and hey presto... you may just find you have RM. DO NOT try and install RM while in Safe Mode. Simples. As soon as you have downloaded the file leave Safe Mode and restart Windows as normal. If you do get any warning in this state then something is odd with your system so do try and see if any stray security switches are loaded up under processes (under Services) and turn them off if possible. Be careful here. To figure out how to do some of the above just use your search engine and do a small amount of detective work because Windows now adds and removes, moves software and options around with each update so I would be opening a proverbial text book giving all avenues of those options here. Do no try and do something I have not outlined above because I will not be held responsible for any actions taken. All actions taken under these kind of conditions are at your own risk. I do hope some will find peace of mind with this helpful option.

A couple of important notes here to add to the above... If you are logging into Windows on any PC or laptop as an administrator you do NOT have to install RailMaster or run it as an administrator at any point. Logically, as you login to Windows as an admin you are automatically given admin rights to run and install any program as an admin immediately. To check this in Windows 11, as this is what you have, just simply click on Settings and then Accounts and you will see your username, local or non local account and Administrator or Standard User. If listed as a Standard User then admin rights will be required as stated prior in the FAQ. The next part that is actually missing from the FAQ is a popup that Windows Defender shows when attemtping to install RM in Windows 10 or 11. The reason why Chris did not show this is almost certainly down to the fact he used Windows 7 and not 10 before he sadly left us. The popup is a red box usually which states that the RM setup file you are running is malicious and may cause damage to your system. If you have downloaded the file from a reputable site then you can ignore the warning and simply click on 'More info'. Next click on 'run anyway'. Your Anti Virus program MAY pick the file up as being that which contains a trojan and may lock the file away in a vault. If so, simply open the vault and allow the program to be marked as a false positive and it should be restored to its original download area on your system. Install as normal from here. If the file was deleted then you have an aggressive AV program and you will need to download it again. Make sure this time you DISABLE the AV program before installing RM. If you are new as you say you may wish to follow a full step by step guide I wrote on my own RailMaster Help Site (link is one of the fixed threads at the head of this sub forum near the FAQ). This will guide you through from start to finish and is extremely detailed with graphics to make it fool proof. It is virtually impossible to not have a successful install when following these instructions. If it does fail you should consider that you have a faulty eLink. Welcome to RailMaster and enjoy.

Hi Fishy Apologies for not reading your post sooner and getting back to you. The router suggestion is only one of many issues that can cause this effect but is seldom thought about or even mentioned. Hence my little inclusion here. As per your first paragraph I answer yes. The effect is not hugely common but it does happen and is why it is often sprouted by some in help forums other than this where the advisor says turn your router off for around 30 seconds and restart it. This clears the temporary cache inside the router and, as stated, different browsers pass temporary data in different ways and it is easily corrupted. It is also the case that your dynamic IP address will almost certainly change to a different one which is allocated to your ISP via a pool of addresses and yours will be one of a certain pool allocated. Upon a reset of your IP you may find an IP close to that of your previous IP or one way different from a second pool. You nor your ISP has any control over the pools given to them. My router rarely gets rebooted except when I alter internal settings as it is an industrial type router and not one given by your ISP. Apart from that it rarely gets a reboot although over the years I have had to do a reboot around 3 or 4 times. So you see how rare it is but it can and does happen.

I've not replied to this thread prior but as many ideas and reasons for the automatic logging out of members over time, however long or short that may be, has been ongoing I thought it may help to offer a perfectly good hypothesis for this type of thing going on. I do NOT say it IS the reason for these occurrences but it could easily be. Very easily. Let me offer up some explanation to at least give you an idea of what MIGHT be happening and is more likely than most offered up already, with all due respect. The code that this forum and website are written in, and at this point it doesn't matter which, could be at a level that different browsers and versions of browsers may have some difficulty understanding the syntax or commands the code is written in. Each browser has an interpreter written into it which translates any downloaded code into the formatting you see on screen. This is true for older languages but not for server side languages like PHP for example where it is decoded by the server where the site lies and is brought to the browser already translated. This makes the site appear to load faster. So, with all the different versions of browser out there one member's version of Chrome, IE, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera or whatever will not load or use the code in the same way as another member's browser version. Thus this renders comparisons pretty useless in effect. A routine timed to automatically log out users may be interpreted perfectly correctly in Firefox but not Opera... why? Different browser engines. Safari is an Aplle broswer, Chrome is Google and Firefox is Mozilla. The most compliant browsers for web authoring are Mozilla based browsers because they implement web authoring standards far more quickly than anyone else. MS lag behind as usual, which is why IE always broke - and is now no more. To keep incompatible code working in other browsers the author has to write a hack to make, IE for example, work more or less like Firefox would out of the box.While this can be done most of the time it is not always possible so this should be considered. One other thing to consider, although probably not happening to everyone at the same time or close to each other, is when your router/modem is reset your IP address will change. So a simple page change on the site will instantly drop your cookie or session variable within the code and log you out. How do you check that? Simple... Go to the following site: https://whatismyipaddress.com/ Note your IP address (this is your public or Internet IP) and if you are logged out again just go back and check to see if that IP has changed. If it has then the router or your ISP has issued you with a new dynamic IP address. If you, like me, have a static IP from your ISP then this IP will never change. 99% of all public have dynamic IP's. Hope this offers a little more insight and maybe food for thought.

It's not that Hornby 'allow' 254 characters but rather that the field in the database for the title has either a default setting of 255 characters from the original design and build of such or it was used as a typical base concept as numbers are used in programming. This is based on 'doubling up'... 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 etc. Note that computers begin counting from 0 and not 1 and, of course, only understand zeros and ones... i.e. binary. The database therefore would be unlikely to have been designed with that kind of wriggle room for lengthy titles. It is generally understood on any Forum platform that titles should be kept short but informative but not over descriptive and where the reader gets the meaning of the thread immediately. Similarly, replies follow the same unwritten protocols. Titles that are obviously too long or not understandable will be edited probably with the original postee being asked to take that to task. It is their thread after all... Some may ask why I used 255 in my post when making my point. The clue and answer are contained within too.

JJ I have removed your link not because the video linked would cause an issue but the site it is hosted in contains links that could be inappropriate for some members. AC

I'm here Fishy... not been on the forum for a few days. For the OP... Upgrading from W7 to W10 or even W11 should not interfere with your programs or any data files you have. A clean install will though. It doesn't matter where the Windows install files come from as even those copies that have been altered shall we say are highly unlikely to interfere with your programs or files unless deeply malicious. Of course it is always prudent to do a backup and this is your choice. Reference was made to an upgrade from W7 to W11 not being possible because of the age of the computer or OS. While that for most folk is likely the case a few processors did have the correct instruction sets for compatibility toward the end of life for W7. Motherboards also had the facility M.2 added early and is activated within the BIOS and these two requirements are needed for W11 to work correctly or install to start with. There is currently a workaround but Microsoft will almost certainly close that off very shortly. W11 is essentially W10 with the added security levels and a GUI tweak. Fishy is absolutely spot on re the activate.dat file.

Sometimes I can download with or without the warnings which means Windows Security is quite the security wizard - not. This happens in W10 and W11 but if folk do experience these issues this is the simplest workaround. You have shown however, Fishy, that not everyone gets the same fault which one may assume they would if Windows worked the same way every time... but it doesn't. Who doesn't love a good anomoly?

Late reply Terry but the upgrading of a PC or laptop makes no difference to the license. One has to deactivate the software first, upgrade the PC and then reactivate in that order. If you did that then some of your registration details may not match your original set when purchased. Make sure your email address used to contact them is the same as the original or mention the change of address in your email. They are normally extremely helpful as long as you provide relevant and correct details.

@Allan-347499 Take a look at my post which will tell you how to easily beat the Windows warning about the RM install file being infected or corrupted. Just follow the order of steps given and you'll have your installation working in no time. AC