Conflict with antivirus

I have the paid version of ProtonVPN.

Leaktest is a .exe file that is on my hard drive. If I block Leaktest.exe from connecting to the internet in Bitdefender’s firewall and have ProtonVPN disconnected the firewall does block Leaktest.exe.

If I then connect through ProtonVPN the Bitdefender firewall no longer blocks Leaktest.exe.

So the way it looks to me, I have to either replace Bitdefender or ProtonVPN. Bitdefender has it’s own VPN so maybe that is the way to go. I just happen to like Proton and want to support it.

Do you have any insight into this conflict?

Windows Security with controlled folder access enabled + uBlock Origin on the browser(s) + ProtonVPN NetShield = excellent protection against malware.

Turn NetShield off in ProtonVPN.

Thanks for the suggestions. I suppose that since no one else has volunteered that they see the same, this is something idiosyncratic to my setup.

Most of what Bitdefender is doing is opaque to me, but the one thing I do like is that it blocks me from visiting known suspicious sites. Maybe there are other ways to do that?

I tried the Bitdefender VPN and it does not break the firewall. I tried the Mullvad VPN and it behaves the same as Proton.

I gave that a try, didn’t work. But thanks for the suggestion, it was worth trying.