If in the last few days Microsoft Defender, the antivirus present by default on all PCs with Windows 10, informs you that the CCleaner app it is potentially dangerous, you don't have to be afraid, you are not the only one. Many users are reporting this problem online and it is not the first time it happens: CCleaner has already in the past given problems with antivirus that recognize the program as if it were infected. And for one of the most used computer programs by users, this is certainly not good news.
For those who did not know CCleaner is a program developed from the Piriform company that helps keep your PC clean of unwanted files. What does it mean? Which cleans up all the photos, documents, videos that we keep saved in the PC, but that we haven't opened or used for a long time. CCleaner quickly established itself as one of the most popular apps, but it hasn't always been frowned upon by Microsoft. In fact, in addition to being a program developed by a third party, in some cases it performs one too thorough cleaning creating problems with the functioning of the PC.
Is Windows 10, CCleaner really a dangerous app?
The colleagues of Bleeping Computer, a website specialized in computer security (and not only), tried to ask for explanations directly from the directly concerned: Microsoft and CCleaner. And the answers are slightly conflicting.
On the one hand, Microsoft warns that Microsoft Defender aims to protect users from any external attack and for this reason blocks or reports the apps that inside suggest the use of other programs, especially if they have little to do with the main one.
CCleaner developers, on the other hand, ensure that it is a false positive and are ready to discuss with Microsoft to resolve the issue. What is a false positive? This is an antivirus error that mistakes a legitimate program for infected software. False positives occur when the same string chosen as the signature for a given threat is also present in the offending program.
Why Windows 10 reports CCleaner as a potentially dangerous app
