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uTorrent Being Flagged By Windows Defender, Other Anti-Virus Apps As “Potentially Unwanted Software”


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If you’re a big torrent downloader, then there is a very good chance that you are making use of the popular client uTorrent, and if you’re a Windows user, then you may also have noticed that Windows Defender started to show concerns surrounding the app of late.

 

Multiple users are reporting that Windows has begun to flag uTorrent as “Potentially Unwanted Software,” something that developer BitTorrent Inc says is nothing more than a false positive. However, the company has removed the suspect release from its servers at the time of writing, meaning anyone using the app should use a different release – one which Windows Defender seemingly has no issue with.

 

uTorrent-main-1200.jpg

 

With uTorrent generally being the torrent app of choice for millions of users around the globe, the suggestion that a release is carrying more than just a torrent downloader is one that will prove troublesome to a fair few people.

 

Interestingly, it is not just Windows Defender that has started to complain about uTorrent either, with a number of anti-virus applications also marking the torrent client as a potential threat when picked up via a scan.

 

While Microsoft has long had a dedicated uTorrent page available in which it labels the app as a threat, this is the first time that it has gone as far as to sound the alarm in this way. The fact other anti-virus apps and services are also making noises about uTorrent would suggest this is not something Microsoft is doing specifically, but rather that there is at least something about this specific uTurrent release that is causing it to be flagged.

 

“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 Inc told TorrentFreak.

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 folks at BitTorrent Inc see no reason for the current worries surrounding its app as yet, although it does say it continues to reach out to anti-virus vendors in an attempt to figure out just what is going on.

 

utorrentthreat.png

 

Redmondpie.com

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1 hour ago, Adn.naw said:

The folks at BitTorrent Inc see no reason for the current worries surrounding its app as yet, although it does say it continues to reach out to anti-virus vendors in an attempt to figure out just what is going on.

 

A wild guess but I feel those folks does know what's wrong with this "latest" version, simply because they know what changes they made. They never will tell users what happened because it's bad publicity for them to show that they are messing with something they shouldn't. This is just another case why users shouldn't be finger happy updating applications that work fine just because there is a new one, before are not sure that this new version is really better; quite frequently is not! Might be a coincidence, but just 3 days ago uTorrent wanted to update and I rejected it.

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I stopped using utorrent a while before the whole cryptomining scandal. Downloaded qbitorrent and never looked back. It actually got better with the time 

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I strongly advice against using any µTorrent version after 2.2.1.

It is very likely that all these anti-virus applications are flagging µTorrent based on a heuristic scan.

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On 4/13/2018 at 10:14 PM, mkc21 said:

I stopped using utorrent a while before the whole cryptomining scandal. Downloaded qbitorrent and never looked back. It actually got better with the time 

 

i already tried that client.... this client has one realy strange behavior....

 

you download a torrent for a usb hard drive ... the next time you turn on the computer and the hard drive isnt plugged in or with the wrong letter the client will start downloading the torrent again from scracth to drive C .... if you are not careful will download several torrents twice ruining your ratio

 

it should say content not present or sopmething like that but do not starting to download...  and utorrent doesnt start to download   say  files missing   recheck

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A private tracker I joined at doesn't recommend uTorrent anymore. I love the UI but I read reviews and chose qBitTorrent instead.

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On 4/14/2018 at 11:51 PM, David said:

 

 

i already tried that client.... this client has one realy strange behavior....

 

you download a torrent for a usb hard drive ... the next time you turn on the computer and the hard drive isnt plugged in or with the wrong letter the client will start downloading the torrent again from scracth to drive C .... if you are not careful will download several torrents twice ruining your ratio

 

it should say content not present or sopmething like that but do not starting to download...  and utorrent doesnt start to download   say  files missing   recheck


sorry to say but in my case if i move a torrent form the default place defined on settings it will give an error...

maybe your config is wrong somehow....

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On 4/14/2018 at 3:05 AM, Desertfox said:

I strongly advice against using any µTorrent version after 2.2.1.

It is very likely that all these anti-virus applications are flagging µTorrent based on a heuristic scan.

 

Agree. I am using a 10 years old ad free version. Worry free and work like a charm

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  • 2 weeks later...

I always update to the latest version and never had any issues plus you can choose to ignore the action in your antivirus scan so no action will be taken

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