Fix ‘ Potentially unwanted app found ’
You have two options for resolving the Potentially unwanted app found error: remove the app that has been flagged or allow it to run on your system. Make sure the app is safe before allowing it to run.
Torrent clients are frequently flagged as PUAs (potentially unwanted apps) by Windows Defender, not because they are malicious, but because they can be used to download potentially harmful files.
Related: How to open Jar files on Windows 10
Allow Potentially unwanted app to run
By whitelisting a PUA in Windows Defender, you can allow it to run.
- Open Windows Defender.
- Go to App & browser control.
- Click ‘Review’ under Reputation based protection.
- Open the dropdown that says ‘Low’.
- You will need to confirm you have admin access to the system to get beyond this point.
- Review the details of the threat and decide if you want to keep the app.
- Scroll to the bottom of the details for the detected threat, and open the ‘Actions’ dropdown.
- Select ‘Allow on Device’.
- Apply the change.
Related: How to find and open the AppData folder on Windows 10
Remove the app
You can uninstall the app that Windows Defender is alerting you about. Follow these steps to find out which app has been flagged.
- Open Windows Defender.
- Go to App and browser control.
- Click ‘Review’ under Reputation-based protection.
- Select the most recently listed command to view its details.
- The ‘Affected item’ will tell you which app was flagged.
- Go ahead and uninstall it.
Conclusion
You may continue to see the ” Potentially unwanted app found ” message if you’ve allowed a PUA app to run on your system. It all depends on what kind of app is being flagged. If you want, you can disable reputation-based protection. It’s not a standard feature of Windows Defender, so any apps you run on Windows 10 will still be scanned. If the error message persists after you have allowed or removed the app, you will need to clear your protection history.
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