Update 2.6 produces false positive viruscheck

The September 2021 update version 2.6 causes problems with some virus scanners like F-Secure, Secure Point, and some others. The file that causes the problem is GfaWin23.Ocx version 2.39, the GFA-BASIC runtime. After investigating the problem I’m sure the scanners report a false positive. My PC and the files on it do not contain a virus. The GfaWin23.Ocx file can be used without any problems, the GFA-BASIC 32 installer will not install a virus.

GfaWin23.Ocx version 2.39 is a patched 2.38, which is not trapped by any virus scanner according to VirusTotal. To my surprise, patching (changing) only one byte in the binary already causes 5 out of 66 online virus scanners to complain. This is the first time patching causes problems. I patched the GfaWin32.exe as well, and this file does not raise any problems.
I have contacted the vendors of the virus scanners to notify them of the false positive and hope they will add it to their exception list. Until then I will no longer release a patched GfaWin23.Ocx.

Use version 2.38 instead, reinstall
As a GFA-BASIC 32 developer you can ignore the virus scanner’s report, but when you release your software with the GfaWin23.Ocx runtime your customers face the same false positive virus reports. Therefor, I advise you to restore the previous version (2.38) of GfaWin23.Ocx, which does not give any problems.

The download page now contains installer version 2.6a, which contains version 2.38 of the runtime. Please download 2.6a and reinstall GFA-BASIC 32 version 2.6.

Apply the runtime bug fixes yourself 
Version 2.39 did fix a number of bugs, you now must do without. However, you can apply those fixes yourself while running your program. There are 4 bugs that need to be fixed:

• Alert box displays wrong background color.
• The mouse pointer over Ocx controls is not the control’s default mouse, but the Form’s mouse pointer. Especially, the TextBox Ocx shows a constantly flipping mouse pointer (arrow <–> I-beam).
• The FileName property after using CommDlg.ShowFolders returns a string with a terminating null character.
• The RichEdit Ocx property set CharFormat causes an exception when the string contains a 9.

You can apply all fixes or only the ones your program requires. The following code must be inserted at the beginning of your code (it requires the gfawinx.lg32 library):

'
' Patches for GfaWin23.Ocx 2.38 - 13-Sep-2021 (SH)
' Bug fixes to apply on the fly in a program.
' Note - Patches are only applied once: on first RUN only.
'
$Library "gfawinx"

If Round(DllVersion * 100) == 238       ' Only apply to 2.38

  ' Fix: Alert box background color
  If Peek($1800193C) != 6 Then PokeProcess1 $1800193C, $06

  ' Fix: Get FileName after CommDlg.ShowFolder
  If Peek($1801BCEF) != $4A Then PokeProcess $1801BCEF, Chr($4A, $89, $06, $89, $56, $10)

  ' Fix: MousePointer in Ocx Controls to default mouse
  If Peek($18013B5D) != $5C Then PokeProcess1 $18013B5D, $5C

  ' Fix: Rtf.CharFormat set fails if string contains a 9
  If Peek($1805BA4D) != $7F Then PokeProcess1 $1805BA4D, $7F

EndIf

When GfaWin23.Ocx keeps being rejected by virus scanners, I will add these and possible new bug patches to a single routine in gfawinx.lg32.