Hardmuscle wrote: »The "virus" is probably a false positive (possibly caused by or derived from corrupted VC++ 2015 files). The launcher (as you said) wants to install (even if you already have it installed) Visual C++ 2015 Redists, and it gets hung-up during the installation, because, it "detects" a later version installed. It then throws an error and stops. ~ I ran into this situation myself (can't you tell?). //> To end this madness....
Uninstall the now corrupted (partially overwritten) Visual C++ 2015 Redistibutables. (image). ~ Uninstall the later version mentioned (which is "incredibly" the Visual C++ 2017 redist; leave it out). ~ Install the 2015 Redists when prompted by the launcher. ~ (Solved if you leave 2017 out, sigh). ~ -- (Also. I do believe it says somewhere to disable Anti-Virus and User Account Control when installing these). All prior versions of Visual C++ Redists have been interchangeable, in that we didn't have to remove the new to install the old or vice versa.
The launcher (for me) doesn't prompt for installation of 2015; (since removing 2017). ~ but , this kind of ticks me off because I need 2017 and I don't know if it's going to recycle the whole situation if I put them back. ~ That said. ~ If putting the 2017 Redists back in causes the launcher to stop recognizing 2015; it's time to complain to Microsoft, because they should be able to coexist like all prior redists do.
Note: ~ I already had 2015 installed when I was first prompted by the launcher to install it again (I also had 2017 installed. ~ In fact, I had all of them installed; 2005 to 2017). This is why I fear (know for sure) having 2017 atop 2015 is the reason for thisheadachemigraine.