Problem with Gens and Gens Tracer

[Tony H]

Anyone else having these problems with Gens?...

Gens and Gens Tracer were working fine 2 days ago. Today I noticed that Gens runs, but the screen is split in two, meaning there are two images of the game on the screen at the same time (side by side).

I also noticed that my Gens Tracer executable file was gone. I downloaded it from here, but when I tried to copy and paste it back into the folder, nothing happened. I then deleted the entire Gens Tracer folder system and tried copying everything back into place. All of the folders and files copied over fine except the folder that the executable is in. That folder is entirely empty.

Any ideas?

In the last two days I had a Dell update, but not sure if I had a Win 10 update.

EDIT: Looks like there hasn't been a Windows update on my PC since 1/10/17

[Tony H]

Found a work-around:

Tried doing a system restore to a point right before the Dell update but didn't fix the problem. I then tried copying the Gens Tracer executable to my D drive (conventional hard drive) instead of my C drive (solid state drive). The file copied over just fine. The first time I tried to run it, a window popped up and said that Windows SmartScreen had stopped it from running. As soon as I said it was okay to run it, Gens Tracer ran fine.

Had never heard of SmartScreen before, but I guess it helps protect your PC by stopping known bad programs, or unknown programs (like Gens?). SmartScreen had never asked me about Gens before, so not 100% sure that was the problem, but at least I can run Gens again.

[lee4]

Probably latest windows 10 anti-virus definition blocking gens.exe

You might want to add gens.exe to exclusion list to Windows Defender / SmartScreen

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ndows-defender

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...een-filter-faq

[Tony H]

This is what a game looks like in Gens now. Bizarre.

[lee4]

check your display and monitor & video driver settings
they might be changed with updates and gens have rendering problems

[Tony H]

Thanks for the suggestions Lee. Using your ideas, I did a Google search and found some useful info that led me to a solution. Will post it here since the solution for Win 10 is different.

If you're getting a split screen with Gens and the colors are waaay off, here's how to fix it with windows 10...

Right click on the Gens executable and click on properties then compatibility. Click on Reduced Color Mode, then select 16 bit color. Click Apply and you're done.

The only problem left, is that I still can't install it on my C drive. If I copy the Gens.exe file from my D drive and paste it anywhere on my C drive, the file stays for about 2 seconds, then disappears. Very strange.

EDIT: Much better after the 16 bit color "fix"...

[lee4]

gens.exe be quarantined by Windows Defender / SmartScreen
turn off real time protect in Windows Defender / SmartScreen settings
in Windows Defender (History) / SmartScreen (items) check your quarantined items (restore / allow gen.exe)
You might want to add all gens.exe locations to exclusion list to Windows Defender / SmartScreen again
turn on real time protect in Windows Defender / SmartScreen back on

[Tony H]

Turns out it was McAfee. I went to the quarantined area and told it to restore it, but it puts it back in quarantine after a few seconds. Will leave it on my D drive for now (where it works fine). Will see if I can send a request asking McAfee to remove it from their list.

EDIT: Submitting a file to McAfee is kind of a pain. Probably won't bother since I found a work-around.

[MathUser]

When I ran Gens on my old computer it would set my computer to 16-bit color mode when I ran it. It was annoying. That's probably why I use Gens/GS now. I don't know if it can trace or anything but it's trying to be a compilation of all the Gens forks made over the years.

[Helder]

Too late to the fray I suppose but many emulators and cheat or hack tools are always falsely blocked by AntiVirus programs. Do what I do and put all the emulators in a folder with each system/emulator in a subfolder and choose that main folder to be ignored and problem solved.