Microsoft is improving Windows Defender with every update for
Windows 10 operating system and the company’s default antivirus
solution is pre-installed on all Windows-powered devices.
It appears that Windows Defender and third-party security
solutions have begun blocking BitTorrent client uTorrent due to
a possible threat.
The popular antivirus solutions such as Avast, Kaspersky,
Bitdefender finds that there’s nothing wrong in uTorrent. While
on the other hand, Windows Defender, Sophos antivirus engine,
and a few others have begun blocking the application on
Windows desktop operating system. Only Some vendors have
flagged it as Potentially Unwanted Software.
It is worth noting that a small number of users are only
receiving the error and it’s not yet known what’s triggering
the block. It could be built-in modules in the application
which is causing problems.
BitTorrent, however, says that issue is affecting only 5
percent of the users, the company also notes that one of out
three installers is affected. A small number of systems got the
warning, and it could be possible that warning may be has
something to do with the latest cumulative updates shipped for
the operating system.
“We believe that this passive flag changed to active just hours
ago with the Windows patch Tuesday update, when a small percent
of users started getting an explicit block,” BitTorrent said in
a statement. The warning could be the result of an update
released for the operating system in the past few weeks.
“We had three uTorrent executables being served from our site.
Two were going to 95% of our users and were not part of the
Windows block. The third, which was going to 5% of users, was
part of the Windows block. We stopped shipping that and
confirmed we are no longer seeing any blocks,” the company
said.
The modules such as Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware Web Companion
should not be blamed as Microsoft has listed Lavasoft as a
verified publisher, and thus it doesn’t make sense to blame all
modules. It is worth noting that the company is working with
Microsoft and antivirus vendors to address the reports, and
it’s likely that the issue will be fixed in the coming days or
weeks.
