Hello fellow Smite players, today I found an Interesting Reddit thread by a guy named "JeezJeezJeez" original link at the end of post.


Cause of the Smite startup hitch:

It's due to the slow scanning technique that Windows Defender deploys, that is typically faster with almost any other 3rd party Antivirus software. If you wanna see for yourself open Smite while you have task manager open (Ctrl+Alt+Del and pick Task Manager) and look at the Defender aggressively scanning Smite and its entire root folder not once but every time you relaunch Smite.


Well there's a possible fix that worked wonders for me and many others below.

Search for "Windows Security" and open it. on the left panel you'll see you're currently in the main Home settings. Select "Virus and Threat Protections" tab then look at the "Virus and Threat Protections Settings" section and click the clickable link that says "Manage Settings" once it loads scroll down to "Exclusions" and also click that clickable link so it opens the next sub menu. Then click "Add an Exclusion" Type is "Folder" and redirect it too your Smite root folder.

Like this...

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\SMITE


Nicely done, now keep in mind though if for some reason a virus would leech onto any files inside this folder (highly unlikely it'd target a random steam game) you'd run the risk of further damages if not noticed in a timely matter.

Enjoy your 5-10 second startup instead of the sluggish minute or worse one! :D


Original Poster:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Smite/comments/4wf87t/game_takes_up_a_minute_or_two_to_launch_exclude/

Have a fantastic day!