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I have noticed that I have an erroneous process running that is apparently related to Guild Wars 2 called awesomium_process.exe. This seems to be launched along with the Guild Wars 2 executable from a folder %TEMP%\gw2cache-{4E8E6364-ABBF-1665-6763-8E4EBFAB6516} and does not appear to actually be 'installed' on my PC in the Guild Wars 2 folder.

Is this spyware? If this is official why is it installed like spyware/trojans/viruses rather than being installed into the Guild Wars 2 installation folder?

Does this have to be running, and can it be disabled/removed?

What is the purpose of this process?

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    I think it's used by ArenaNet to render the Trading Post and load w/e other web pages the game needs. – Krazer Dec 16 '12 at 4:48
  • yeah I did some research due to its spyware-like behaviour, just wanted to be sure... – kalina Dec 16 '12 at 4:57
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The awesomium_process.exe is a lightweight web browser based on Webkit, that is used by several games (including Guild Wars 2 and Lord of the Rings Online). In Guild Wars 2 specifically, it is used for the Black Lion trading post screens (Gem Store, Currency Exchange, Trading Post, etc).

Killing the process will result in the process being relaunched the next time you visit any of these screens. Preventing the process from running at all will result in these screens simply not working anymore.

Deleting the executable will result in it being recreated the next time the game is started.

The official website for Awesomium is awesomium.com.

A discussion on Guild Wars 2 Guru regarding this process can be found here.

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    It does look pretty suspicious and has previously been flagged by certain A/V programs. – Krazer Dec 16 '12 at 5:00
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    @Krazer but don't leave out the 2nd half of the story, it was a false positive (And only by Norton) and ever seance they started signing the exe it no longer shows up as a false positive. – Scott Chamberlain Dec 16 '12 at 7:36
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    It's also found in TSW. – Shadur Dec 16 '12 at 17:29
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I found it in Garry's Mod addons file, it only opens when I'm playing the game, and doesn't seem to be harmful, but if you try to close it via task manager, it reopens in a few seconds to prevent the game from shutting down.

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  • Welcome to the site! This question's already been answered; is there any way you could expand on yours to provide more info? – Jarrod Mosen Nov 21 '14 at 2:16

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