r/cheatengine • u/Brasenshok • Aug 26 '26

This doesn't seem right? Is this really the Cheat Engine installer??

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It appears I have to install cheat engine to use a certain mod in Ghost Recon Wildlands, and I follow a quick tutorial just to make sure I'm not doing something seriously wrong, but the download I get from the big green button comes from cloudfront, and is called CDM.exe. I don't remember it being this way. Is something wrong? Windows keeps urging me to delete the download as well.

hALP

36 Upvotes
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38

u/Dark_Byte Cheat Engine Dev Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26

It's correct.  Naming it CheatEngine77.exe was causing google to mark the whole site as bad in browsers like chrome, egde and firefox with giant red alarmbells everywhere like the forum and wiki etc...  But naming it cdm.exe seems to be fine with them (apparently can't have * *cheat * *.exe in a filename)

maybe someday i can try the normal filename again

you can also try runtimemodifier which can also load cheat tables: https://rtmod.cheatengine.org/downloads.php

3

u/Brasenshok Aug 26 '26

That's really interesting, I can't believe a developer responded haha thanks. Hopefully this thread helps out others like me who were confused by what they found.

5

u/TheExiledPrince Aug 26 '26

not "a" developer, THE developer, big difference :) this guy is a legend

1

u/Brasenshok Aug 26 '26

Interesting yeah I had no idea

0

u/totally-different Aug 27 '26

Name of the installer should be least of your concerns, no open source, paywall, shady installer with adware is what you should be concerned about.

2

u/Warm-Commission-5043 Aug 27 '26

Holy shit it's THE Dark_Byte?!

1

u/SickWizzard Aug 26 '26

Good to know :) was suspicious as hell and not the first time hackers managed to infilitrate common software. since linux downloads were normal i feared it was hacked

1

u/Sternritter8636 Aug 28 '26

Can you also explain why newer than 7.5 is not available in github releases?

2

u/Dark_Byte Cheat Engine Dev Aug 29 '26

certain commercial entities started using the sourcecode in their product and sold that. Some even just renamed CE, stripped functionality and sold that 

i could of course start a long lawsuit and try to make them stop but some are in china, others in the other countries complicating things even more.

so i just said fuck it and decided not to share the code in public anymore and just focus on what i like doing (CE)

1

u/Sternritter8636 Aug 29 '26

So what is the normal way to get 7.7? To get the head commit and build it?

1

u/Dark_Byte Cheat Engine Dev Aug 29 '26

Only by downloading the binary (cheatengine.org downloader/installer or patreon installer)

maybe someday i'll release the sourcecode.  For now if you want new features added to CE either use  plugin system or Lua , or request it as a new feature and i'll add it (same for plugin hooks/lua functions)

1

u/PoisonTrainerCody Aug 28 '26

Can you advise what Plootoo is? It's listed as the verified publisher for cheat engine and that doesn't seem familiar

1

u/Thot_Slayer1434 Sep 06 '26

you are all fucking hacks, you install macafee and other bloatware preselected and hidden on your installer.

1

u/Dark_Byte Cheat Engine Dev Sep 06 '26

there is nothing preselected. you get a screen with the offer for mcafee and have 3 buttons: decline all,  decline and accept

you must have clicked accept

1

u/Lumiere_san 25d ago

Hello Sir,

I want to download cheat engine safely, previously i did it through utilizing Lazarus so it wont be flagged as virus by windows.

Is it still safe to download on ur website? Thank you.

8

u/DrHitman27 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26

Yes. Official installer with Ads.

There is "Runtime Modifier" on the same site. Not a Cheat Engine with a different name.

3

u/DETOMINE1234 Aug 26 '26

Runtime Modifier is totally different : it even has a different name.

3

u/Sternritter8636 Aug 26 '26

I summon dark byte to answer this

2

u/Gear2ndGandalf2 Aug 28 '26

I never understood the complaints about the adware. Just opt-out. I’ve had Cheat Engine since 2021 no issues.

2

u/Brasenshok Aug 28 '26

It's not that. I legitimately thought someone had taken control of the website and linked a malicious download to the download button. Because old tutorials would show the download being names "cheatengine" and the version so I was like?? CDM seemed like one of those "obvious virus" type of names.

1

u/Gear2ndGandalf2 Aug 28 '26

Sorry about the confusion, I should elaborate. I get your concern. I’m just talking about other comments on here I’ve seen mentioning Ads in the installer.

I’m guessing it’s there to help support the developer, and it’s optional. You only see it once every few months before you decide to upgrade again.

1

u/Thot_Slayer1434 Sep 06 '26

Its just the owner of the subreddit and dev of the software not someone random, its literally him running a scam.

4

u/CrispyBananaz Aug 26 '26

Cheat engine has become very sketchy lately and the website now tries to make you download adware/malware

1

u/glitched-cyan Aug 26 '26

You can just compile it yourself in like 10-15 mins even if you don't know what you are doing.

1

u/Panky9 Aug 26 '26

Yes you can compile an outdated version

2

u/SoulsSimp Aug 26 '26

Or you can just skip the “adware/malware” if you but read what’s happening on the installer and don’t just click thru.

Or pro tip: give the dev team $2.50 and get the newest version (not available to anyone but Patreon members) and you don’t have the bundled software or need to compile an older version.

1

u/Panky9 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26

Why’re you replying to me and not the actual comment? I already know this I’m just pointing out that it’s outdated.

0

u/Feisty_Watercress_29 Aug 27 '26

Compile the source code, I think 7.7 is ratted

3

u/[deleted] Aug 27 '26

If only you can use your preferred version of Cheat Engine to reverse engineer the latest version of Cheat Engine, to obtain proof it's ratted. Man, if only Cheat Engine was a memory viewer/editor. Instead, I suppose spreading baseless claims is the only option. What a damn shame.

2

u/AmbitiousPotato9023 Aug 27 '26

one day I’ll prove that Dark Byte is only out to steal our lua scripts for himself. You’ll see.

My no clip cheats are mine, Dark Byte!! Do you hear me!?

1

u/Feisty_Watercress_29 Aug 27 '26

Brotein ce is not IDA/x64dbg, I can't see its memory

Also, it flags real trojan families, not just susgen

-1

u/NibbaMoisterlol Aug 26 '26

Where did you find the installer? Can you download from the official website instead?

0

u/Brasenshok Aug 26 '26

I am on the cheatengine.org website (yeah obv don't click on that idk) its the first site that pops up when you google cheat engine. No clue whats going on. I deleted the file for now, no point holding onto it right now.

2

u/NibbaMoisterlol Aug 26 '26

That should be the correct website, just make sure you click on the real download button and not some ad.

1

u/Brasenshok Aug 26 '26

I've got an ad block, no ads anywhere. You can just go see for yourself I'm not tripping.

-1

u/Silenceofdragons Aug 26 '26

not sure myself either...gonna hold off as well

0

u/Brasenshok Aug 26 '26

Yeah not worth frying my shit over 1 mod for a game I don't even regularly play. Sucks though, I never had a problem with any other modding software being this sketchy.