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.