The Creator's fall update of Windows 10 in 2017 added a new feature to combat ransomware. They call it Controlled Folder Access and it's part of Windows Defender. Mostly nobody was using it until recently. This setting is somehow being turned on automatically for some users. When it's on, it absolutely blocks ALL access to some pretty common folders, like personal AND public documents. All of our programs use a smartluck folder in the public documents folder and therefore will have problems when trying to save their settings.
To get to the settings:
Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection
Under Virus & Threat protection settings, select Manage Settings
Under Controlled folder access, scroll down and select Manage Controlled Folder Access
Switch Controlled folder access setting to OFF (recommended) or ON.
If it's on, you need to then click "Allow app through Controlled folder access" then you have to find the executable for each of our programs (see below).
Here is a link to a youtube video showing how to do this. We would do this with our installers if Microsoft made it possible which they haven't.
We do not recommend this feature being turned on because you have to go through all the above steps to allow every app that needs access to these folders and every time any of them update, you have to remove the existing exception and then make a new one because the update is considered a different app. Also the programs cannot make their own desktop icon, though no error is shown. If you use your computer a lot, this is really going to be in the way. The ransomware protection this feature of windows provides is minimal. You would be much better protected if you made a periodic image backup on an external hard drive which is only connected during backups.
Here is a
link to a youtube Video about turning this off.
All Smartluck programs use the public documents folder to store their settings. If you have Controlled Folder Access OFF, our programs will have no problems saving their data.
If it's turned on, for EACH Smartluck program to work, you will have to click "Allow an app through controlled folder access" and then you will have to locate the program.
All of our programs except Lottery Updater are in the program files (x86) folder under Smartluck. The individual program executable locations and filenames are as follows:
Lottery Updater (icon is world with
phone on it):
c:\gh\slhhttp.exe
A* - Advantage Gold:
"c:\program
files (x86)\smartluck\agold\gailgold.exe"
W* - Wheel Gold (4,5,6 or 10):
"c:\program
files (x86)\smartluck\wgold\gailwg.exe"
G* - Filtering Full Wheel Generator:
c:\program files (x86)\smartluck\ffwg\gailffwg.exe
Note 1: the .exe is hidden by windows by default and there are usually 3 or 4 files with the same name, however the program is the only one with the program's icon and the executable is always the largest file.
Note 2: Whenever any of our programs upgrade, the folder access will be broken if you have Controlled Folder Access on. To fix it you will have to first remove the exception for the upgrading program, then add it back again.
If you encounter this problem and are not able to fix it, call during tech support hours and we can log into your machine with your help using teamviewer. We can resolve this problem in just a few minutes.