EQ Auction Forge v1.4.4

Maintenance release. No feature changes — this is purely a packaging fix for the antivirus false positive some of you ran into (Windows Defender quarantining EQ_Auction_Forge.exe, with a handful of other scanners flagging it too).

What was wrong: the app used to ship as a single self-extracting .exe (PyInstaller "onefile"). That unpack-to-temp-and-run pattern is exactly what a lot of real malware does, so antivirus heuristics flagged it — even though nothing in the app changed and it's the same open-source Python you can read on GitHub. It was a false positive, not an infection.

The fix: 1.4.4 is built a different way (Nuitka, as a normal program folder instead of a self-extracting exe). The dropper-shaped behavior antivirus was reacting to is simply gone — the new build scans completely clean, 0 detections across every major engine, including Microsoft Defender and BitDefender. I am also going to report the older flagged build to the antivirus vendors as a false positive, so those warnings clear on their end too.

What changed for you: the download is now a folder instead of a lone exe — it ships the program plus its support files together. Unzip the whole folder and run EQ_Auction_Forge.exe from inside it; keep items.txt.gz next to it, same as always. Everything else is identical — your saved auction lists, settings, and aliases carry over untouched.

Install: unzip the folder, run EQ_Auction_Forge.exe, keep items.txt.gz next to it. No installer, no dependencies.

Heads up: Windows SmartScreen may still show an "unknown publisher" notice since this is an unsigned hobby build — "More info → Run anyway." That's a separate prompt from the antivirus issue and just means the build isn't code-signed yet.