IMF Pro 3.2 Turns Off Windows Defender in Windows TP 10162[ Finding Malware Removal Tool as malware is SOLVED by db 1461]

[Buddahfan]

IMF Pro 3.2 starts when I restart the computer or when I login in. In anycase after logging in IMF Pro 3.2 shows as being active with no issues. However, Windows Defender is shown as off and can not be started as long as IMF Pro 3.2 is running. When I exit IMF Pro 3.2 I can start Windows Defender. I tried turning off a couple of the security features in IMF Pro but I could still could not start Windows Defender. I only tried a couple. In anycase I could not find a feature in IMF Pro 3.2 to turn off that would allow me to start Windows Defender.. Only by exiting IMF Pro 3.2 was I able to turn on Windows Defender.

 

Is this by design or is this a bug? Thanks

[Cicely]

Hi Buddahfan,

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

For the situation you mentioned, please rename IWsIMF.exe into IWsIMF.exe1 and the reboot to see whether the issue continues.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

 

[Buddahfan]

Hi Buddahfan,

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

For the situation you mentioned, please rename IWsIMF.exe into IWsIMF.exe1 and the reboot to see whether the issue continues.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

 

I made the change and it worked. Windows Defender is active and I was able to do a scan with Windows Defender. Thanks

 

However, another issue popped up. Yesterday I upgraded to W10 10666. The update went fine except IMF Pro popped up with an "Allow/Block" and I clicked "Allow" I don't recall what the popup was asking if I wanted to block or allow. However, I did a Smart Scan this AM with IMF Pro and it found two malware entries. Evidentitly it is identifying the Microsoft "Malware Rmoval Tool" as malware. This is probably what IMF Pro asked me if I wanted to block during the upgrade. Since "MRT.exe" is not an essential part of Windows I had IMF discard the two entries. I have attached a picture of the saved log of the two entries.

 

 

[clippittee]

Hi, I think this is a normal behavior. Even with Avast or any other security software running, Windows defender will always be turned off since it will pose a conflict.

[Cicely]

Hi Buddahfan,

 

Thanks for your continual feedback.

 

The situation " Evidentitly it is identifying the Microsoft "Malware Rmoval Tool" as malware" you mentioned is a false positive. We will remove it in the Database Version 1461.

 

Thanks for helping us improve our products. :-)

[Buddahfan]

I did a reinstall of IMF Pro 3.2 on my Windows 10 10240 computer. (No need to explain why)

 

1. The reinstall recreated the IWsIMF.exe file and kept the IWsIMF.exe1 file.

2. This again turned off Windows Defender.

3. So I did an uninstall of IMF Pro 3.2 and restarted the computer.

4. Then I deleted the IMF folder and did another restart.

5. Then I resinstalled IMF Pro 3.2 updated the database to 1463. Again IMF Pro turned off Windows Defender.

6. So again I renamed the IWsIMF.exe file to IWsIMF.exe1.

7. Then I did another restart and again everything is working.

8. After the reinstall when both IWsIMF.exe and IWsIMF.exe1 were shown in the IMF folder, Windows identified the IWsIMF.exe1 file not as an application but as an 'extension"

 

The workaround works as long as you don't reinstall IMF Pro. This of course should be obvious but I thought I would pass along the detail especially item #8

 

 

 

[Cicely]

Hi Buddaahfan,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I have reported the issue to our product team.

 

Please download the tool from http://testdemo.iobit.com/InfoHelperV8.exe

 

Then double click to run this tool and click “Save report to Desktop”. You will get a zipped file IObit_Debug_Info.zip on your desktop. Please send it to us so that we can get the detailed information to look into.

 

Looking forward to hear from you.

 

 

 

[Buddahfan]

Hi Buddaahfan,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I have reported the issue to our product team.

 

Please download the tool from http://testdemo.iobit.com/InfoHelperV8.exe

 

Then double click to run this tool and click “Save report to Desktop”. You will get a zipped file IObit_Debug_Info.zip on your desktop. Please send it to us so that we can get the detailed information to look into.

 

Looking forward to hear from you.

 

 

 

Here it is

[Cicely]

Hi Buddahfan,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

The situation " Windows identified the IWsIMF.exe1 file not as an application but as an 'extension" is normal, for Windows will detect ".exe" as program. When you change IWsIMF.exe into IWsIMF.exe1, Windows will detect exe1 as an 'extension".