I installed Selenium 4.10.0 in my Python 3 virtual environment (venv) on Windows 11, as usual. However, this time BitDefender Antivirus Plus decided to block selenium-manager.exe as a threat when I tried to run my code. I attempted to restore it from quarantine, but I kept receiving "Access Denied" permission errors. So, I uninstalled Selenium and added the folder as an exception to BitDefender.
Now, when I try to install Selenium again, I encounter the following error:
ERROR: Could not install packages due to an OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\Users\\jonas\\{venv}\\Lib\\site-packages\\selenium\\webdriver\\common\\windows\\selenium-manager.exe'
Check the permissions.
(Note: I replaced the venv name to simplify it.)
I can still install Selenium in other venvs, and I can create as many files as I want in the selenium\\webdriver\\common\\windows directory. However, I am unable to create a file named selenium-manager.exe. I have full permissions and ownership of the common\windows folder, but apparently not for the file. The peculiar thing is that the file doesn't even exist, so I can't find a way to change its permissions. I tried using "icacls windows /grant jonas:(W,R,X,RA)" in the admin terminal, but it doesn't solve the issue either. Even when attempting to create the file using echo whatever > selenium-manager.exe, I still get an "Access Denied" message. It seems like BitDefender blocked that file from ever existing again, and now I can't resolve the issue.
For now, I'll create another venv to work around the problem temporarily. However, I would really appreciate knowing how to fix this in case I accidentally forget to add an exception to BitDefender in the future.
Thanks!
