How to remove PUA:Win32/Presenoker on Windows 10
Windows Defender blocks all sorts of threats on your system. In some cases, it will identify the threat for what it is e.g. a trojan or an app having trojan-like behavior.
One type of threat that Windows Defender identifies is a PUA. A PUA is a potentially unwanted app. It’s not explicitly dangerous but you may not know what it’s capable of.
Torrent clients are the types of apps that Windows Defender normally flags as PUAs and the type of file that it flags is Win32/Presenoker.
Win32/Presenoker may or may not be malicious. It really comes down to the app that it’s being flagged with. It is generally up to you to understand if you want to allow the app or to block it.
Allow or block PUA:Win32/Presenoker
The decision to allow or block PUA:Win32/Presenoker should be based on the app that it is identified with. Win32/Presenoker isn’t always safe even if it’s been identified with a torrent client because not all torrent clients are safe or secure.
Make sure your torrent client (or whichever app has triggered Windows Defender) is safe. Verify your download via its Hash, make sure you only download a file from its official source and not from an app repository, and run the executable through a VirusTotal scan.
Remove PUA:Win32/Presenoker
If you’ve decided you want to remove Win32/Presenoker, Windows Defender will be able to remove it from your system easily. All you need are admin rights on the system.
Before you remove Win32/Presenoker from the system though, you should understand that you will likely need to remove the app that it came with as well or Windows Defender will continue to flag it.
- Open Windows Defender.
- Go to Virus and threat protection.
- You will see a list of flagged items under Current Threats.
- Click the ‘Low’ dropdown next to Win32/Presenoker.
- Authenticate with the admin user.
- Select Remove from the list of options.
- Click Start actions.
- Wait for Windows Defender to remove the threat.
- Repeat for apps that have been flagged by Windows Defender.
False positives
Windows Defender can get a false positive i.e., a safe item is flagged as unsafe. In that case, be absolutely sure the app is trustworthy.
When the Win32/Presenoker is identified;
- Open Windows Defender.
- Go to the list of Current Threats under Virus and threat protection.
- Click See details under Win32/Presenoker.
- Check which app or file is being flagged and if you recognize it or not.
- If not, it is indeed malicious.
Repeat flags after removal
If after removing Win32/Presenoker and the app it came with, you continue to get alerts for a potentially unwanted app, and it’s the same one that you’ve quarantined or removed, Windows Defender is basically unable to update its history for removed threats. The threat has been removed.
To fix the repeat alerts problem, you need to clear the Windows Defender protection history. Read our article to learn how to clear protection history on Windows Defender.
