Updated (February 20, 2025) - Microsoft released an updated version of Windows Defender (1.421.1831.0) that resolves the issue presented in this article. In light of this news, we now recommend users upgrade to the latest version of Windows Defender to resolve the issue, instead of whitelisting Chromium binaries. 

The original version of the article is presented below for posterity. Note that the change regarding support for Apple Silicon devices under the Outcome header is still accurate. 

The Issue

A recent Windows Defender update (1.421.1630.0) rolled out that is inadvertently causing dramatically slower launching of the Ignition Designer, Perspective Workstation, and Vision with the Web Browser module installed. This is confirmed to be related to the packaged Chromium browser extraction (JXBrowser) due to some change in Windows Defender. More details are provided by TeamDev directly since this change has affected many other applications using JXBrowser.

At this time there are two options to remedy the issue:

• Add the directory with Chromium binaries to the whitelist. (recommended)
• Rollback the Windows Defender update.

Solution

Our recommendation is to add the binaries directory to whitelists on client machines where the Designer, Workstation, or Vision clients using the Web Browser Component are installed alongside Windows Defender (Please ensure these steps are not being applied on your Ignition Gateway machine):

1. Go to Start → Settings → Update & Security → Windows Security → Virus & threat protection.
2. Under Virus & threat protection settings, select Manage settings.
3. Under Exclusions, select Add or remove exclusions.
4. Select Add an exclusion, and then select the directory with the Chromium binaries. this is within the .ignition directory: ~/.ignition/cache/resources/jxbrowser

Note: For those who prefer using Group Policy management tools to apply this change, Microsoft documentation provides configuration steps for folder and file extension exclusions across multiple Windows clients using their Group Policy Management Console.

A fix for this issue is targeting 8.1.46, where we'll update the bundled JxBrowser to version 7.42.0.

Outcome

Updating the included version of JxBrowser has some ramifications for support of Intel based Apple devices. Namely, the version of Perspective Workstation bundled with version 8.1.46+ Ignition Gateways will only support Apple Silicon devices. However a version of Perspective Workstation that supports Apple Intel devices can be downloaded separately under the Launchers heading of our Downloads page.