Last year, there were nearly 2,000 data breach reports in the United States, the highest number ever reported. This is just one example of why protecting your own devices from security risks is essential.
It starts with a solid antivirus program for your computer and smartphone. Many free apps don’t have your best interests in mind and could put your device at risk. Tap or click here to access free antivirus and cleaner apps you need to remove.
But reputable products can cause problems from time to time, such as a popular antivirus solution that incorrectly modifies the Windows registry on many PCs. Several people are reporting that the change causes browser updates to be flagged as malware. Fortunately, there is a quick way to fix it.
A false positive that breaks browser updates
As Bleeping Computer first reported, hundreds of Trend Micro’s antivirus customers have reported issues including modifying their Windows registry and marking Microsoft Edge updates as malware. This problem is apparently related to a Trend Micro product: its Apex One endpoint security solution.
These false positive reports started pouring in around the beginning of May on the Trend Micro site and on social media. The company quickly issued a notice addressing the issue.
Trend Micro advises customers to update the software to the latest version. This includes Smart Scan Agent Pattern (version 17.541.00) and Smart Scan Pattern (version 21474.139.09).
What can you do about it
These updates should install automatically. Here are the latest versions:
- Smart Scan Agent Pattern File version 17.541.00
- Smart scan model build 21474.139.09
If that doesn’t seem to fix the problem, Trend Micro offers to temporarily exclude the location of misreported files. On the Apex One dashboard, navigate to Agents > Agent Management > Settings > Scan Settings > Real-time/Manual/Scheduled Scan Settings > Scan Exclusion. Then add the following locations:
- C:Program Files (x86)MicrosoftEdgeApplication101.0.1210.32*
- C:Users*AppDataLocalMicrosoftEdgeApplication101.0.1210.32*
- C:Program FilesMicrosoftEdgeApplication101.0.1210.32*
- C:Program Files (x86)MicrosoftEdgeWebViewApplication101.0.1210.32*
- C:Program Files (x86)MicrosoftEdgeCore101.0.1210.32*
- C:Program Files (x86)MicrosoftEdgeApplication101.0.1210.32*
- C:Program Files (x86)MicrosoftEdge BetaApplication101.0.1210.31*
Any registry changes made to your PC can also be rolled back, but we strongly advise that you only do this if you are comfortable navigating through more sophisticated settings. Please see this Trend Micro web page for these instructions, which are in the section titled “Restoring Affected Registry Changes”.
another option
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