Microsoft Begins Flagging uTorrent as Malware Threat: Several users have reported that uTorrent was marked as a threat by antivirus vendors last week. uTorrent was classified as malware by many antivirus vendors. The uTorrent application is treated as “potentially unwanted software” by antivirus software. Microsoft started to mark uTorrent as malicious software and prevent it from being used.
A well-liked torrent client that is frequently used for data downloads is uTorrent. More than 150 million people have downloaded and installed uTorrent so far. Although there are many torrent client programs, uTorrent is the most widely used one. It is a piece of software made specifically for downloading large amounts of data from distant servers. In other words, it’s a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data.
Microsoft Begins Flagging uTorrent as Malware
However, Microsoft began flagging uTorrent as malware and categorizing it as PUA:Win32/uTorrent. Windows Defender stops it running because it has a poor reputation. It is also mentioned that this application can affect the quality of your computing experience. The BitTorrent Inc (parent company of uTorrent) is aware of this thing. The torrent company believes they’re false positives triggered by one of their recent releases.
It appears that the uTorrent client was blocked on devices that were already running uTorrent as well as on newly installed machines. Most importantly, not all uTorrent installations were marked as malicious. Therefore, we assume that the Windows Defender definitions must be to blame for this. Or probably one of those Windows Patch Tuesday updates?.
Furthermore, we submitted the uTorrent executable to the Virus Total site, and you can see the results below. Yes, Microsoft is in the list of AV’s that flagged uTorrent as PUA:Win32/uTorrent. But the rest of the antivirus vendors (those in green) marked the installer as clean.
Next we tested BitTorrent client and this time also Microsoft flagged it as malware.
We tested the installation of uTorrent and BitTorrent on two of our Windows 10 machines. We had no idea why the installation files were placed in the AppData folder. They are intended to enter program files in the ideal scenario. Perhaps that is how the uTorrent program is coded.
Surprisingly, we were able to run the software and Windows Defender did not show up any message. This leaves with question whether uTorrent is actually a malware? Or it’s just an Windows update that is flagging it as malware? Please let me know your thoughts on this in the comments section.
As MS and other companies want to view the consumer as an endless wallet, they want to control everything by making it a subscription service rather than actually owning anything…. this leads to the evolution and redefining of terms and software.
By doing this they can flag things that actually help the “little people” and scare them into their endless trap of data harvesting and yearly fees.
Its pathetic.
I believe that Microsoft (and other companies) conciously declare uTorrent to PUA for advertising reasons. It’s a pitty. In my opinion the developer of uTorrent should change their software in order to pass the test without loosing its purpose. I don’t know if this was realistic.
I have been using utorrent for a long time. The program itself is harmless, it is the software downloaded via that program that can cause problems and maybe why MsftDefender is marking it Malware, to prevent the possibility of downloading any because unlike everything else you download on Windows, the downloads through Utorrent do not go through a cert check.
it’s the same thing for the poor Gadgets in which I had to manually re-install using the 8-gadget pack… it’s a shame really.
it is malware for SURE
why for SURE what details can you provide?
Utorrent and any other P2P system have been thorns in the sides of MS and many other software companies because people share the software they want to sell. making them persona non grata was just another way of trying to stop sharing. A torrent is only as safe as the original file. clean file start no viruses. dirty file to start then obviously its spreading a virus or trojan…etc.. MS apple and Google all want to control the internet 100% for $$$$’s they have obliterated the nets original purpose the free and complete exchange of information across the planet. Hell the largest CREATORS of viruses are anti virus companies even more so than state run hacking groups.