Why do I get a pop up window when starting ConQuest that says "Some Anti-Virus Software stop ConQuest from starting its search engine..."?

There are two main reasons why this error message may appear:

1. If you are running an antivirus program, such as Norton AntiVirus, then you may have problems running ConQuest.

See whether your antivirus program can keep an exclusion list to manage exceptions for normal program operations which are being detected as virus-like activities. Alternatively, most antivirus programs can be temporarily disabled by right-clicking on the icon in the desktop toolbar and selecting the appropriate option. ConQuest can then be run normally and the antivirus software re-enabled afterwards.

2. The other cause of this error message is due to permissions issues with the directories that ConQuest uses to store temporary files.
The simplest solution is to remove these temporary files and force ConQuest to remake them. Browse to your home folder (e.g. by typing %USERPROFILE% in the File Explorer location bar). Click View and make sure that File Name Extensions and Hidden Items are ticked.

Then please delete the following folder:

csds_data

and the following files (which one(s) you have depends on your version of ConQuest):

.csds_defaults .csds_defaults2 .csds_defaults3

This should remove all traces of your ConQuest preferences. Now when you start up ConQuest it should automatically re-create the .csds_defaults3 file and csds_data directory in your home folder with full write permissions.