Windows 10: Virus automatically gets added to allowed threats of windows defender, and so are not removed.

Few viruses gets added to the allowed threats category of windows defender automatically. Even if I manually remove them, they get added back immediately afterwards. I have tried running full scan and offline scan from scan options but they did not help either. I do not like installing third party antiviruses, but I did install Avast and ran a full scan and then uninstalled it when it did not help either. The attached image shows the list of virusesI suppose some background script might be running to add them back but I am unable to identify them in the task manager. Let me know if I should in

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Windows defender false positive - forced to allow threat

Windows defender has started to identify C:\Windows\System32\mshta.exe as a threat [normally reported as a Trojan Powessere.G]. I use mshta.exe to run an hta custom MsgBox - I have been hoping to keep using my current CustomMsgBox tool [batch file calling a vbs-hta file] until later this year when I hope to have had enough time to replace it with a PowerShell alternative.

Windows defender's notification lets me "allow the threat" but that seems to me to be a bigger security hole than is necessary - it will now ignore a potentially real intrusion when all I want to run is a genuine Windows component. My immediate problem is fixed but I would prefer to fix the false positive using the exclusions list.

I cleared the 'Allowed threats history' so I could use the exclusions list instead. I added C:\Windows\System32\mshta.exe to the file exclusions list and I checked that it had taken properly by checking the exclusions list both in the UI & in the Registry. But the exclusion made no difference, it continued to detect and block the exe.

I have repeated the attempt several times [by clearing the allowed threats list & exclusions list beforehand] and the results are the same every time
- allowing the threat works,
- using the exclusions list has no effect.

I studied the relevant tutorial but have not spotted an error in what I have been doing - Add or Remove Windows Defender Exclusions

Does anybody with experience of using the exclusions list to counter false positives have any suggestions for me?

Denis

 

Allowing a threat in Windows Defender.

To add a file exclusion to Windows 10:

• Press Windows key and type Windows Defender. Press Enter.
• Choose Virus & threat protection.
• Choose Virus & threat protection settings.
• Then, Add or remove exclusions.
• Press the plus sign next to Add exclusion.
• Choose File.
• Navigate to the file and choose it to add the exclusion.

Note: It is not recommended under most circumstances to add an exclusion unless you know it is not malware.

 

Unable to remove or quarantine Virus Threat

Ran a virus scan with defend and 3 threats were detected, however when I went to have them removed nothing happened, tried to quarantine them and again nothing happened any suggestions on how to eliminate these threats. The threats are PUA:Win32/SweetIM
PUA:Win32/Visicom and PUA:Win32/AskToolbar