Microsoft and other major antivirus vendors have flagged SkinPack Installer as malware

Microsoft and other major antivirus vendors have flagged SkinPack Installer as “malware”. This is likely due to Microsoft’s hatred against SkinPack installer, not because it contains a virus or such. Flags from Microsoft usually spread to other antivirus vendors.

• If you are downloading from this page, please temporarily disable real-time protection or save to a folder excluded from antivirus scans.
• Failure to exclude SkinPack’s installer files may result in inability to install/uninstall SkinPack installer and explorer.exe being unable to start.
• If you do not trust this process, please refrain from using SkinPack installer and use portable version or look for alternatives instead like WindowBlinds Skins.
• Because skin packs will change file system (imageres.dll) to change icons so anti virus give warning, please disable temporary if you’re using anti virus.
• Anti Virus apps cannot correctly distinguish between apps that modify Windows system files with the user’s consent and apps that maliciously modify the files, so disable your antivirus or windows defender temporarily when you want to download and install skinpack.
• Download is MALWARE???
  Some silly antiviruses tend to flag the installer as malware, because it’s elevated and unsigned
  we are submitting all releases before release to Microsoft for analysis if they’re detected, but we can’t guarantee the same for all the other AVs.
  Since we are not planning to have our IRL name plastered everywhere, we won’t be getting a signing certificate either.
• I get a malware, virus, spyware, trojan warning.
  This is triggered due to the installer. Also if you see security error on chrome or firefox just click on Details and then click on visit this site or try other browser or use download manager apps like orbit and IDM.
• I cannot open the download file.
  Disable your anti-virus or windows defender app temporarily and try again.
  SkinPack make changes to your system files, SkinPack works that way! It modifies your system files to change icons. If you do not want this, you can not use SkinPack, sorry! SkinPack will modify system files like imageres.dll to change icons and antivirus dont permission to do that! Modifying system files and changing system configuration may get reported as malware by some antivirus or windows defender software. You need to temporary turn-off antivirus or windows defender software so that program won’t be interfered during download/installation/uninstallation.
• AntiVirus software detects malicious software
  The skinpack will not run on systems with Avast AntiVirus installed. This is because Avast falsely (!) detects the skinpack as a virus. Some AntiVirus applications for some reason detect a false positive for AutoIt Binaries (the coding language the skinpack is writtten in). Nevertheless, I guarantee that my files are virus free!
  In order to execute the skinpack you have to temporarily disable Avast and enable it after installation again. Note that you need to do so every time you update or reapply the skinpack!
  Another solution would be to add the skinpack files to the whitelistet files in your AntiVirus software.
  Other AntiVirus applications might show this behavior as well and the steps described above need to be applied in order to install the skinpack.