That starts with a solid antivirus program for your computer and smartphone. Many free apps don’t have your best interest in mind and could be putting your device at risk. Tap or click here for free antivirus and cleaning apps you should delete. But reputable products can cause problems from time to time, like a popular antivirus solution that improperly changes the Windows registry on many PCs. Several people are reporting that change is causing browser updates to be flagged as malware. Luckily there is a quick way to fix it.
A false positive that’s breaking browser updates
As Bleeping Computer first reported, hundreds of Trend Micro antivirus customers have reported problems, including their Windows registry being modified and Microsoft Edge updates being tagged as malware. This issue is seemingly tied to one Trend Micro product: its Apex One endpoint security solution. Those reports of false positives started flooding in around the beginning of May on Trend Micro’s site and across social media. The company quickly published an advisory addressing the problem. Trend Micro is advising customers to update the software to the latest version. That includes Smart Scan Agent Pattern (version 17.541.00) and Smart Scan Pattern (version 21474.139.09).
What you can do about it
Those updates should install automatically. Here are the latest versions:
Smart Scan Agent Pattern version 17.541.00Smart Scan Pattern version 21474.139.09
If that didn’t seem to correct the issue, Trend Micro says to temporarily exclude the location of the files being improperly flagged. On the Apex One dashboard, go to Agents > Agent Management > Settings > Scan Settings > Real-time/Manual/Scheduled Scan Settings > Scan Exclusion. Then add the following locations:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\101.0.1210.32C:\Users*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\Application\101.0.1210.32C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Edge\Application\101.0.1210.32C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeWebView\Application\101.0.1210.32C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeCore\101.0.1210.32C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\101.0.1210.32C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge Beta\Application\101.0.1210.31*
Any registry changes made to your PC can also be restored, but we strongly advise you do so only if you’re comfortable navigating more sophisticated settings. Please see this Trend Micro webpage for those directions, found in the section titled “Restoring Affected Registry Changes.”
Another option
If you’re looking to make a change to your antivirus software, Kim’s pick for total security across all of your devices is our sponsor, TotalAV. You can get an annual plan of TotalAV Internet Security for just $19 at ProtectWithKim.com. That’s over 85% off the regular price!
Keep reading
Here’s what it looks like when a virus takes over your computer Quick check to see if someone is spying on your computer
