How to fix stuttering, freezes, & lag from the windows defender bug February 2021

[DAVdaBRAV]

If your Bloons TD5 game is suddenly freezing or lagging whenever you press the play button it may be caused by an issue with Windows Defender anti-virus protection continuously scanning and rescanning the changes the game is making to its user save folder. This was the problem for me. I could not find the steps to solve the problem anywhere so I’m posting them here in case it will help others.

How to exclude / whitelist your Bloons TD5 Game in Windows Defender:

1. If Bloons TD5 is running, close it.

2. Open Windows Settings via the start menu:
a. Start > Settings (Gear Icon)

3. Navigate to Virus & Threat Protection:
a. Update & Security > Windows Security (tab on left) > Virus & threat protection

4. Under the “Virus & threat protection settings” heading, click on “Manage settings”

5. Scroll down to the “Exclusions” heading, and click “Add or remove exclusions”

6. Add the following two folder exclusions and one process exclusion:
a. <DRIVE LETTER>:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\BloonsTD5
i. Click on “+ Add an exclusion” > Folder
ii. In the “Select Folder” windows explorer box that comes up, Navigate to “<DRIVE LETTER>:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common” replacing items between <> with the correct value for your installation location.
iii. Click on the folder named, “BloonsTD5” to highlight it, then click on the “Select Folder” button.
b. <DRIVE LETTER>:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<YOUR STEAM ID>\306020
i. Click on “+ Add an exclusion” > Folder
ii. In the “Select Folder” windows explorer box that comes up, Navigate to “<DRIVE LETTER>:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<YOUR STEAM ID>” replacing items between <> with the correct value for your installation location.
iii. Click on the folder named, “306020” to highlight it, then click on the “Select Folder” button.
c. BTD5-Win.exe
i. Click on “+ Add an exclusion” > Process
ii. Type, “BTD5-Win.exe” without quotes
iii. Click on “Add”

7. Re-launch Bloons TD5 and play as normal.

Note: Your drive letter will almost always be "C" and your save data folder is almost always the only folder under the userdata folder with a long number for a name unless another person uses steam on your computer.

[mat]

...

[neilkanep4]

Works for me--thanks!

If people are uncomfortable with this method, I found a simpler, though less effective, workaround:

Go to Windows Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security (in the left pane) > Open Windows Security > Virus & Threat Protection

From there, click on Manage Settings under the Virus & Threat Protection Settings header.

Turn off Real-time Protection.

***Windows will re-enable this setting automatically, so you'll have to turn it off every time you play***

[Ekitchi]

Thank you so much! Good instructions and a sensible explanation :)

[Kuno]

How to save a game from beeing uninstalled. I was so clueless about that issue that happen all of a sudden. Thank you very much. Very usefull !

[Eden ♡]

Game on my end wont start anymore, I tried everything at this point.
I'm using Kaspersky, no Windows defender.

[DAVdaBRAV]

Originally posted by Eden ♡:

Game on my end wont start anymore, I tried everything at this point.
I'm using Kaspersky, no Windows defender.

The original problem seems to be caused by anti-virus programs having the BTD5 files and process in their threat database. One might speculate that someone wrote a virus to masquerade as BTD5, or something, but the fix is the same. White list your legitimate Bloons game and dependencies. I don't know how to do that with Kaspersky, so I wrote the instructions for Windows Defender which I did know how to do.

[Eden ♡]

Originally posted by DAVdaBRAV:

Originally posted by Eden ♡:

Game on my end wont start anymore, I tried everything at this point.
I'm using Kaspersky, no Windows defender.

The original problem seems to be caused by anti-virus programs having the BTD5 files and process in their threat database. One might speculate that someone wrote a virus to masquerade as BTD5, or something, but the fix is the same. White list your legitimate Bloons game and dependencies. I don't know how to do that with Kaspersky, so I wrote the instructions for Windows Defender which I did know how to do.

I add it as exception
but it doesnt work

[Oliver.Minchin]

OMG IT WORKED THANK YOU!

I did a slight variation as i couldnt find one of the mentioned folders but my game is fully fixed.

All i had to do was the Process (BTD5-Win.exe) and excluding the game folder!

[samninjakiwi]

Thanks for the awesome explanation! Pinned :)

[dahqwemmygamer2]

Dude, you are awesome! I'm gonna tell other people to do this so they can get help too!

[gleb-bus]

Doesnt work
I asked Steam support, Ninja kiwi support, trying out this.
I gave them all informations and nobody can help me, really nice that bloons 5 is so good on Steam and playable kappa

[crisis actor]

Works perfectly!

[Cacho2567]

Originally posted by leMon...pilot:

...

hey guys

[Gronok]

It works like magic. I can finally play the game without random micro-freezes in the first ~30 minutes of gameplay

[Cacho2567]

hello