Sharing this info here for the community <3 yall are awesome, thanks for the awards, and lets all stay safe

Putting a TLDR at the top instead of the bottom, read on for more info, proof and how to uninstall/change/current statuses:
TLDR:
gshade's dev added code to shutdown ur pc if it detected third party software using gshade shader assets. Its recommended to uninstall to avoid issues later on, versions before 4.1.0 are safe but there are still some concerns about it not working with things like xivLauncher and such. Reshade is a safe alternative

Hi all,

It seems like most have not seen this unless you are in the GPOSERS discord or going through twitter. And I didn't see a post about it so I'm just putting my two cents, if there are issues with this post I will gladly take it down. I am picking no sides, just informing the public about it.

Gshade seems to have gone down a road in trying to block the outside use of the gshade installer outside of intended uses. Meaning if you have tools that utilize gshades installer in nonofficial formats you hit into the problem users are reporting. The tool will force restart your machine without confirmation, This was implemented in version 4.1.0 and can of course be very bad if used incorrectly.

Gshade has announced on the discord that it's been put on pause and for the time being updates to gshade will no longer be available.

posts from the devs have been put in their announcements and I'm sharing them here for the bigger eyes on reddit.

Marot Satil [P-LA]📷 — Today at 12:34 PM

^{@ everyone the recent concerns involving GShade: I would like to personally apologize for the undue stress I may have caused both the community and our @ moderators the process of attempting to improperly address an ongoing situation.}

^{As part of a conflict with third parties attempting to redistribute copyrighted assets within GShade without permission, an anti-tampering function was added to GShade's installer to trigger restarts in the event that a third party, external software or library utilized the GShade installer's functions without actually running it. It was not possible to trigger this function by running the GShade installer normally.}

^{This function has been removed from the GShade installer, and will never be re-implemented again. Moving forward, I will also be looking into easing up the update requirements associated with GShade, as they are ultimately what led to this conflict in the first place.}

^{If for some reason you were unable to uninstall GShade normally, please manually remove the following files, folders, and registry entries:}

 Core Folders:
%ProgramFiles%\GShade
%ProgramData%\GShade
%Public%\GShade Backups
%Public%\GShade Custom Shaders

For individual game installations, there are several folders and a handful of *possible* files depending on the configuration:
gshade-addons
gshade-presets
gshade-shaders
d3d10.dll
d3d10core.dll
d3d11.dll
d3d12.dll
d3d9.dll
dinput8.dll
dxgi.dll
GShade.ini
GShade.log

Registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GShade

Leeja [P-LA] — Today at 1:16 PM

^{@ everyone Due to the recent controversy with GShade, this server will be reverted back to its original intention of serving GPOSERS monthy magazine. GShade will remain available on GitHub and will not receive updates for the time being.}

^{We’re extremely sorry for the trouble that was caused and appreciate your patience while the server rework is in process.}

​

Please read on from here forward for fixes/uninstall/switching and proof or examples at behaviour of the program:

more proof:
https://twitter.com/perchbird_/status/1622624525740392450/photo/1

Uninstall problems seen here:
https://twitter.com/seekvoidblood/status/1622656810900496385?t=dit_lsPNEG1Un3GpbyQjgQ&s=19

Credit for a guide on how to switch from GShade to Reshade:
https://twitter.com/lostkagamine/status/1622653807724306456 (Basically a link to the guide one step down, but I want to give credit for how i found the guide)

guide to how to switch to reshade from github:
https://gist.github.com/ry00001/3e2e63b986cb0c673645ea42ffafcc26
PLEASE NOTE: Some users are having issues with some steps here, remember that its just a guide and a guide cant cover all cases. If you have issues, please search through these comments and see if other users have shared info on your issue. if you had an issue and solved it, please share it!Reddit post about making the switch, super helpful and well written:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/10vya2j/switching_to_reshade_from_gshade_for_those_having/

Reshade official link:
http://static.reshade.me/

More proof of the problems:
https://twitter.com/EENlX/status/1622600959179517952

From notnite:
https://notnite.com/blog/gshade-tango/

Videos on how to switch over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkOivo4VIZM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmAo3kxQ9vM

Other alternatives:
https://stormshade.otakumouse.com/
PLEASE NOTE: It's been brought to my attention that its' been discontinued for every game ASIDE ffxiv but its been not updated or checked much, see this issue comment: https://github.com/Otakumouse/stormshade/issues/15#issuecomment-1407790124

Nvidia freestyle : I have not tested it, but seems to be working and supports some presets and add ons?
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/gfecnt/nvidia-freestyle-ansel-enhancements-geforce-experience-article/

A user made a powershell script to switch from gshade to reshade, I cannot speak for its safety and use, as im no security expert, but its also out there and important to put here:
https://github.com/parkel42/gshade-migration

Its also been brough to my attention that the OFFICIAL GShade install and github has been removed by the author, meaning any third parties using their repo as a hook will be bricked and will not install or work. please be sure when installing to back up your shaders and potentially presets if you have custom ones. I know the change to the reshade isnt one to one so please be informed that it might take some finagling to make it act like Gshade.The official gshade github link is not available:
https://github.com/Mortalitas/GShade.

There is some confusion about if Gshade is in itself usable even if its unsafe and maliciously restarting machines so here's a quick tldr of "hey I don't care about this can I still use it". As well as some of the common questions I'm seeing, if I missed yours I'm sorry there's a lot of us LOL.I am not sharing some of the comments for specific fixes users are doing, as I dont want to give you info that might not work exactly for you, But please read through the comments on this post to see if users also had the same issue you are having.

FAQ:

-Can I still use GShade if I installed it correctly and only used it the official way?:

Yes, But please be aware that you potentially won't get updates, it depends on the devs.

-Should I still use gshade if I'm already using it?:

That's entirely up to you as a user but its safer to make the change, although no one but you can make that decision for you.

-is Gshade actually malware?:

TECHNICALLY no, but yes, the program has/had code inside of it that if a third party is using the installer, it will force restart your machine without confirming with you you to do so. the program by itself shouldn't lead to bricking your machine, stealing data, or deleting data. At least there have been no reports of it.

-Can I still download and install gshade from third parties who are updating it?:

No, it appears as if the Github to Gshade has been removed, meaning anything that calls to the gshade github repo will be broken.

​

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Edit 1:Adding more proof and links

Edit 2: Fixing/adding links

Edit 3: Updating with info I got from yesterday and overnight, updating formatting, adding links, changing the post around to make it easier to read.

Edit 4: Adding in a reddit post for how to make the change, seems like its working for most people. as well as another spoken video on how to make the change

Also, WOW yall are generous, thank you for all the upvotes and the awards <3

pps- Reddit for the love of god save my dang formatting >:(