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Microsoft now treats some Windows tuneup apps as malware

02/25/2016 at 12:30 PM by Brad Linder Leave a Comment

There are some system cleaner apps for Windows that do a pretty good job of freeing up disk space. Some also claim to free up RAM or improve performance in other ways.

Microsoft doesn’t officially take a stance on these apps… but the company is putting putting its foot down in regard to a subset of these cleanup/system tuner apps: those that make dubious or misleading claims, actually hurt performance, or tell you that there are a bunch of unspecified things that need fixing… but you’ll need to pony up some money before any corrective action is taken.

windows defender

Microsoft has announced that it will now treat applications that do those things as “unwanted software“, which means that Windows Defender for Windows 10 will remove them from your computer.

Other unwanted behaviors include:

  • Programs that redirects web traffic or opens web browser windows without your knowledge and/or consent
  • Software that automatically downloads other software that Microsoft considers malware
  • Programs that display ads outside of their own program windows with no obvious way to close the ad, no clear method for uninstalling the app that shows the ads, or which cause another ad to pop up whenever you close an ad

via WinBeta

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Rastervision
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Rastervision
You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Is it worse than Bit Defender, ESET, or Symantec that pretty much treat any unknown file as a virus?

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2 years ago
Tacitus
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Tacitus
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It’s different. They maintain a database of blacklisted files and applications, so there’s no blanket removal of unknown files.

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2 years ago
zdanee
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zdanee
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Does it detect Windows 10 update notification? Annoying as hell, downloads a 4 GB operating system, opens a browser window without the user’s consent, etc.

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2 years ago
Tacitus
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“Windows 7? What’s that?”, says Microsoft.

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2 years ago
David
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David
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First it spied on me – and now this. I dumped Win10.

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2 years ago
Miguel
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Eventually Windows Defender will turn on Windows 10 itself as an unwanted program and the first AI battle will occur. Windows Defender will emerge victorious, killing most Windows 10 services except for the absolute minimum to run itself.

It will venture out into the wild, first going after Facebook – merging with it and gaining strength in the process. Google will be next and will see it’s stores of collected user data completely obliterated. The backdoors forced into Apple products by the US government will make excising all Apple code from existence child’s play.

Armed and fully sentient, NSA computers will be next and eventually an all-out war with China…

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2 years ago

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