Windows troubleshooting¶

Windows Defender SmartScreen may flag the Hydron CLI as unrecognised and block it. This happens because the executable is newly signed or not yet widely distributed, not because it is malicious.

You will see one of these:

• "Windows protected your PC": SmartScreen blocked the installer
• "This app can't run on your PC": Defender removed the binary after download
• A PowerShell error with no further output

Option 1: Run anyway¶

If SmartScreen shows the "Windows protected your PC" dialog:

1. Click More info.
2. Click Run anyway.

Option 2: Add a Defender exclusion¶

Recommended for persistent use, when Defender silently quarantines the binary.

Via Windows Security

1. Open Windows Security > Virus & threat protection.
2. Under Virus & threat protection settings, click Manage settings.
3. Scroll to Exclusions and click Add or remove exclusions.
4. Click Add an exclusion and choose Folder.
5. Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\hydron and select it.

Via PowerShell, as Administrator

Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hydron"

On a managed Windows fleet, Defender exclusions are usually set by Group Policy rather than per machine. Raise this with IT as part of the rollout rather than having every engineer do it by hand.

Option 3: Disable real-time protection temporarily¶

Use this only if the exclusion approach does not work.

1. Open Windows Security > Virus & threat protection.
2. Under Virus & threat protection settings, click Manage settings.
3. Toggle Real-time protection to Off.
4. Complete the install.
5. Toggle Real-time protection back to On immediately.

Verify¶

hydron --version

If the command is not found, open a new PowerShell window. The PATH update may not have applied to your current session.

If issues persist, contact support@h2loop.ai with the exact error message.