Protection - Malware/ Firmware/etc.
Protection - Malware/ Firmware/etc.
I just can not believe BD has done this to me AGAIN! Throttlestop
Throttlestop is the most useful utility in my entire laptop application arsenal, and I would lose any other app before I lost that.
I also know for a fact it's safe.
BD kept blocking the app from running and saying it was a PUP.
So I kept restoring it but that didn't help.
THEN I added it as an ALL exception, that means every single exception option was chosen for throttlestop.exe and BD gave me a warning that choosing all exceptions could lessen device security.
It STILL blocked it from running and said it was a PUP. I have been using it for 2 years now on this machine with Kaspersky running, and instead of renewing Kaspersky I moved to BD due to ease of use with the Firewall, but BD has always caused me problems and I really hoped this time, a couple years later again, that it wouldn't give me grief. For the first 24 hours, things seemed OK, but I should have known better.
I would think if the item was infected that my computer would have been a malware playground by now. Malwarebytes finds it clean. Kaspersky finds it clean. Defender finds it clean. I have run it every single day for the past 2 years with Kaspersky active the entire time and no malware app has ever flagged it as even remotely suspicious until BD today.
So tell me, if I have added it to exceptions and ticked all boxes, and Bitdefender STILL won't let it run, how can I get the app to run? So there is no way to add apps as exceptions when BD detects them as a "potentially unwanted program"? It wasn't even detecting malware for crying out loud!
But this is where it gets worse. After I pressed restore the latest time, BD crashed and I had to force restart the computer. BD crashed and became completely non responsive and windows asked if I wanted to close it, and I presume during all that time my computer was vulnerable to actual malware. Furthermore, the bit defender notifications page started filling up with the same message that a PUP was blocked. Hundreds and hundreds of entries started spamming the notifications folder with the same thing.
This is eerily similar to what happened to me a few years back and BD hosed my entire OS:
This happened in 2021, it was a travesty. Basically BD got stuck in a false detection loop, the screen went grey and every time I clicked OK, no matter what the next file was, everything was infected according to BD and after I pressed OK, it would go to another file then another, seemingly never ending. After about 100 files and clicking OK, I couldn't take it anymore and forced shutdown with the power button. On reboot, Kaspersky offline, Malwarebytes and Emsisoft all said the computer was 100% clean after 3 complete deep scans. And I know it was, as it was a fairly new install that had nothing dodgy on it and BD had been enabled since day one, and all I was doing was changing folder view options in windows 10 explorer when this happened, BD suddenly went berserk. The amount of damage it caused to drivers and the operation of the OS was too much to easily fix so I had to format and reinstall from scratch. That scared me senseless as I had never seen such a thing since first using an AV in the 90's (VET AV back then). It was definitely a false detection loop it got completely stuck in where it thought every single file on the machine was infected.
I am hoping that those hundreds or maybe thousands of messages that just appeared in notifications was only related to throttlestop this time, and only happened when I pressed the restore button. What happened was that the file was never properly moved to quarantine the first time, so when I pressed restore, it said the destination folder already had the file in it and would I like to overwrite, I said yes, and that's when the crash happened.
OK so not quite like last time as after a reboot it seems to be fine, but it's a precursor and is once again scaring me senseless.
I just noticed there was a new release of Throttlestop, so I installed that, and it seems fine, BD is accepting it (I have cleaned the exceptions list to make sure of this).
The previous build was from a couple years back but the latest is from 2025. So, yes, Throttlestop is working. But what about if I encounter another PUP in the future?
I need to know, right now, if a PUP can not be added to exceptions. As said, I exempted throttlestop.exe from all detections and bit defender still blocked it with a popup message claiming it was a PUP. If so, I already know the program is useless to me as this will happen again, and I will have to go back to Kaspersky and just put up with the incredibly convoluted network interface.
I need to be able to test this, so I will download and install the older version of Throttlestop, and please tell me what I need to do to make sure BD lets it run, so I can test it and know I can apply those steps to any future essential apps it may happen with.
If it's not possible, then at least I know before I go any deeper with the app and I am still only on my first paid subscription day so can get a refund. I am bitterly disappointed.
- Firstly, BD hosed my brand new computer in 2021
- When I tried it again in 2023, my 5000mb/s gen 4 ssd slowed to HDD speeds (Gen 4 SSD to Gen 4 SSD copying was maxed out at 200 mb/s), and disabling BD instantly sent them back to 5000+ speeds for copying large files between them. This seems to have been fixed now and the first thing I tested.
- Now I have a problem in 2025 of notifications being spammed by hundreds of the same message when I tried to restore an app, and exceptions not working.
Please, any help asap in the meantime whilst I contact support is greatly appreciated. I am going to try a few games now to see if there is any issue, especially with shareware ones from itch.io.
Comments
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I promoted you to Level 2. Can you share a screenshot of Bitdefender detecting the ThrottleStop software as a PUP?
I also checked the latest version of ThrottleStop and the two versions prior to it on VirusTotal, and none were detected as malware or a PUP by any anti-malware, including Bitdefender. Below are the VirusTotal links for reference.
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/4c7323d2e1082acdbf5c2c80d0fa056c0f0a804076ee1b18398b5613adf9c981
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d83d3edbd037a926d9319c6f4db62f84657a39d47bd4fae5fa26f692790e800d
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d5cc57e9e7cfaca270ceddd4db69d895398a5e4cae73dc0160cc271fca8f4ecc
Additionally, if ThrottleStop is still being detected by your Bitdefender product, it is best to report it to the Bitdefender malware research team.
If you believe a website or file has been incorrectly blocked by Bitdefender, you can submit the details to our malware researchers by filling out the form at the link below:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/29358/
If the website or file is found to be incorrectly blocked, the detection will be removed within a maximum of 72 hours. However, if the detection persists after 72 hours, the website or file will be considered malicious, as determined by our malware researchers, and the detection will remain.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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Thanks.
Well sure, let me find the previous version of TS and download and install it. As I said the current version works. What I don't understand is why adding it to exceptions did not work. BRB
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Here you go:
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Can you temporarily disable real-time protection on your Bitdefender product and upload both the ZIP file and the executable file of the ThrottleStop software to VirusTotal.com to check if it is detected under the Bitdefender section?
Temporarily disable Bitdefender Protection:
Additionally, can you also share a screenshot of the notification settings in your Bitdefender product?
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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This gets worse and worse. Bitdefender is now quarantining random registry entries of unrelated apps. After it blocked Throttlestop, it made 3 more quarantines, I have taken screenshots of each one. Curiously, 2 of them are registry entries, one for windows update and one for a second opinion non real time scanner, f secure, which I deleted some time back from my system.
Now, I am also having the rubber band bouncing back issue when trying to scroll through the notifications list. As I use the touchpad like a mouse wheel to scroll down through the notifications list, it won't actually scroll more than a couple lines and then bounces back and I can't scroll further. This happened on Bit Defender 4 YEARS ago on a completely different PC. I can not believe it is still happening.
Here are the pics of all the things it blocked when I launched throttlestop:
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Absolutely every single app on virus total was undetected for the file, including BD. Not a single detection.
I see it is throttlestop SYS that is causing the alarm, hence why the exceptions did not work. I guess I answered myself. I think throttlestop.sys is created in temp folder when throttlestop.exe is run.
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Ok I can not upload throttlestop sys to virus total no matter what I disable on BD
and now I added throttlestop sys to exceptions and even that didn't work it is still blocking it. So I delete the file, then run the exe and it creates it and BD instantly blocks it.
This software is therefore untenable for me. Exceptions are not exceptions, clearly.
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I see it is throttlestop SYS that is causing the alarm, hence why the exceptions did not work.
I also figured out from the image that the .sys file is being detected. Additionally, it seems that multiple other software files, like the F-Secure Online Scanner, are also being flagged as malicious, which is weird.
I think throttlestop.sys is created in temp folder when throttlestop.exe is run.
Well, when you install any software, the setup tends to create temporary files in the temp folder that are required during installation. However, after a successful installation, those temp files are deleted.
Let's check using the hit-and-trial method.
1) Open the Run command (press the 'Windows + R' key on your keyboard) and execute the following commands one by one:
temp - delete all the files in the folder
%temp% - delete all the files in the folder
prefetch - delete all the files in the folder
2) Have a look at the Bitdefender support links below to learn how to properly set an exclusion.
- Temporarily disable Bitdefender Protection:
- Set exclusions in Bitdefender Antivirus:
- Set exclusions in Bitdefender Advanced Threat Defense:
- Re-enable real-time protection in Bitdefender.
Note: Before you re-enable Bitdefender real-time protection, also try adding the temp folder to the exclusion list in your Bitdefender product.
3) If the issue still persists, download and install ESET Online Scanner from the link below, scan your system, and make sure to enable the PUP and PUA detection features. This will help rule out the possibility of any undetected malware infecting your PC, especially since your F-Secure Online Scanner was also flagged by Bitdefender. This could indicate that malware is injecting code into executable files of various installed software, which Bitdefender might not detect initially but identifies only after the malware has already modified the files.
For further troubleshooting, kindly contact Bitdefender support by visiting
Select, How to's & Troubleshooting Bitdefender products→Troubleshooting→I don't know→Contact Support→ You will get the option of chat, call or email.
To get immediate update, make use of the chat option. Bitdefender support may require logs and will assist you in generating them.
Also, ensure you do not have any ad-blocker or privacy-blocker extensions enabled, as they might prevent the chat window from appearing.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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I was actually able to fix it. What is going on is that Throttlestop only creates that sys file in a temp folder when bit defender blocks the launch. When Throttlestop runs normally, no such file is created.
What I had to do was add the exceptions then REBOOT, then I deleted the sys file from the temp folder, and now Throttlestop is launching correctly.
I think the reboot might be the key for BD as it says your AV is cleaning up malware on a DOS Like page before windows opens (it is not doing that now of course that all is good).
Anyway, throttle stop sys is no longer being created and throttle stop exe launches just fine.
So in the future i have to take special note of which actual file BD is blocking, and remember to add exceptions and then REBOOT the PC. I mean it's not that big a deal, the PC only takes 30 seconds to start these days with SSDs.
Just to be safe, I am doing a full Malwarebytes offline scan with both drives selected and I will do a BD full system scan after that is done.
However, despite all this, I was getting a windows red exclamation mark on every reboot telling me about a DLL error - I could not catch it quick enough to see what the DLL was, and I thought "here we go again, BD has corrupted my system again from one detection".
But it seems OK now on further reboots, so I have a feeling it might be Throttlestop being blocked that there was some DLL in resident memory that BD was blocking access to on reboot and it was all connected.,
Phew.
I am still rattled though and I really have to think about this. In 2 full years of using Kaspersky, often with Malwarebytes at the same time (real time enabled, unlike now with BD), I never had a single issue. Nada. Actually, I tell a lie - Kaspersky once flagged ONE steam game as having an issue, but it was a common problem with that game and all other vendors found it clean, I read the steam forums and all said it was safe, so I added it to Kaspersky exceptions and that was it. No reboot, nothing, it just worked. One game in 2 years (Neo Aquarium). I ran Throttlestop daily - in fact I had it as an elevated startup item as I have all sorts of performance tweaks on the machine and was controlling voltage and CPU multiplier ratios via Throttlestop.
What I hated about Kaspersky was the ridiculous complexity of the interface and so many interwoven options and the ludicrous firewall application control and alert system (you basically can not set up a simple outbound alert when a NEW app is trying to access the internet, it's impossible , you'll get 100 notifications for one app for every single action it does and the computer grinds to a halt, and all I wanted was internet access block or allow), which ultimately led me back to BD as my all in one.
All this said, Kaspersky was fiddly to use but it WAS rock solid the entire 2 years and I am a heavy user (music and video production) and gamer. I had zero performance issues and only one false positive in all that time as mentioned.
So I really need to think now. Bit Defender is driving me insane not being able to scroll through the notifications list with the touchpad and that really, REALLY needs to be fixed ASAP, as that has been a multi year lingering problem.
What is the refund period? I have to properly test it over the next few days with many apps and see how it behaves. It's the only real solution to get answers if it's suitable for me. I won't try it a fourth time though if I leave it again, and every time has been because of issues like this, and I keep coming back cause I love it as an app.
It is my fault for not just leaving it in trial mode, I had 29 days left of Internet Security fully functional trial, but I was trying to do the right thing and support you guys when I thought I had definitely made up my mind. But now, as said I am rattled and not sure what to do.
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MWB scan clean, running a full system scan with ESET now.
(personally I think it's just bitdefender misbehaving and something was getting interconnected when throttlestop was attempting to run).
BTW, I ran a FULL system scan with BD yesterday as well as Emsisoft emergency kit. None of this happened until I tried to launch Throttlestop for the first time since BD install. The same throttle stop file that has been in my app folder for 2 years. I can assure you there is no infection anywhere but ESET is in fact running right now with every option checked and the full system scan chosen.
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Glad to hear that your issue has been resolved! It looks like you’re using different portable anti-malware scanners to double-check for anything that Bitdefender might have missed, which is always a good practice. Just to add, Emsisoft actually uses Bitdefender signature-based detection along with its own engine, which primarily focuses on detecting PUPs/PUAs and adware. So while it’s a useful additional layer, its malware detection will largely overlap with Bitdefender.
For further information on your queries , kindly contact Bitdefender support by visiting
Select, How to's & Troubleshooting Bitdefender products→Troubleshooting→I don't know→Contact Support→ You will get the option of chat, call or email.
To get immediate update, make use of the chat option.
Also, ensure you do not have any ad-blocker or privacy-blocker extensions enabled, as they might prevent the chat window from appearing.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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Look what it has done, it has completely hosed my system again. When throttle stop was blocked a third time and I said I got 100's and 100's of notifications, it was quarantining random files all over my computer again. I have restored them all and done a full system scan with Eset and not one issue.
NEVER, EVER AGAIN as long as I live and breathe. EVER.
Just tell me how to get my money back ASAP. I can't believe it did it to me AGAIN.
Look at this pic, 4219 files in quarantine. Had I not stopped it and rebooted it would have destroyed my entire system again. My goodness your app is so broken.
Restoring, uninstalling, getting the heck out of here. I am just in shock this time, I am just so blessed I at least did not have any of my backup drives connected, and I am hoping everything restored correctly as there are some files I still need to back up, but I will definitely do a fresh windows install now as I know the registry is probably broken so fresh is better. I won't do one a third time. I actually deserve it cause I keep giving this app a chance. Wow.
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Nope, all the thousands of files did not restore properly, all my games are corrupted, my GOD, I have to just hope my essential files are still there. This is just crazy.
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Kindly have a look at the link stated below.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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Just an update - as I had a mostly sleepless night and very tired. Most files were restored successfully. I have been away for hours as that's how long it took to uninstall BD, re install kasperksy, and do
- A full system scan with Kaspersky
- A full system scan with ESET online scanner
- A full system scan with Malwarebytes Premium with all drives checked, advanced options checked and rootkit detection also checked.
- Finally just for the heck of it, a run with sophos scan and clean
Bit defender was obviously in a massive false positive loop when it had an issue with the one Throttlestop file and affected unrelated files. That's THREE different, NEW computers that BD has hosed the OS of. 3 PC's over nearly 5 years, and it always begins with a single detection that is a false positive. So your protection may be state of the art in itself, but there's something very wrong with what happens when bitdefender finds a file it doesn't like. It's impossible to be otherwise - A Razer 15, then a Lenovo legion 7, now an MSI GT77. Win 10 on first machine, then 11 and now 11 again, all brand new when purchased with fresh OS installs.
Kaspersky is back on, the system is lightning fast again, and I am never, ever going to torture myself like this again. I said that last time, so I am to blame, but I really just believed the issues must have been sorted by now. I can't go through it again, that's 2 days of my life again just gone and now it will be a week to do a full fresh install with all my apps, games, drivers, and audio/video plugins. BTW I don't use ANY pirated plugins or software, period. I am dead against it, and have been since I started music production in 1997. I am just going to put up with Kaspersky's lack of a good alert system for outgoing internet connections focused solely on new apps, and just live with it cause everything else simply works. Not to mention I am being silly right now, and had Kas all day alongside Malwarebytes premium and there hasn't been a single issue. My MWB expires in a few days so I was just testing that for fun since the computer is going to get a full format and fresh Win 11 install anyway, but what I will be installing on the fresh install is Kaspersky plus, and Emsisoft emergency kit for a second opinion, and that's absolutely it.
BTW, the other thing I noticed is that as soon as I uninstalled BD, Microsoft Edge was WAY faster again, so much more responsive, and speedtest is back to normal where as BD muted it a little (to about 580, now I am getting 700 over wi-fi).
I also use ad guard and noscript and am ridiculously security conscious and only allow a few sites as exceptions, for example here. This is why I found it really weird when you instantly presumed I likely had malware instead of even thinking it could be a BD bug, and I guess that is the kind of thing that has kept the same bug over many years worth of updates rather than it seriously being looked at when I reported it in 2021 and the heartache it caused me. I didn't even HAVE anything much installed on that system, it was new and just turned on and all was fine, I was doinbg BD manual quick and full scans every few days or so, and suddenly with a windows option I was changing (view options), BD went crazy and did what was described in the post above when nothing was happening, no files were being launched, no scans were being done, I was simply changing folder view preferences. I am sure the issue I had today on this new computer is related to remnants of that bug.
In any case, I am not even remotely interested in troubleshooting it this time, I will apply for a refund - I can't go through 2021 and 2023 again, I just can't, I am back to something that works for me.
BTW, as a side note, of course, there is not a single infection anywhere on the machine, nothing, and here are progress pics and results.
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@BAV I'm so sorry to hear that you are experiencing this inconvenience.
Would you agree to a remote session with a Support engineer, so they can try to help you out there? Or did you make up your mind and wish to pursue the refund route? Again, really sorry for this..Regards
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Hi,, very kind of you, but I did report it in great detail in 2021. I must admit it was a lot faster this time, when it suddenly quarantined 4000+ files, as when it happened in 2021 I had to press OK on each one manually, this time it just did it very quickly.
The thing that was weird in 2021 was that I was doing full system scans once a week, a quick scan every day as well as a Malwarebytes standard scan every day, and never had a single malware reported, and suddenly the issue happened.
Today's experience is eerily similar - I had scanned my entire system with BD a few hours prior, and MWB, and 0 infections anyware, and all I did was launch Throttlestop from a folder that has been there for a while, AND BD had already scanned that folder in the full system scan anyway! So just by that one applicati0n BD didn't like, it caused all this.
The truth is, I honestly in my heart do not think a remote session is going to find the culprit, but even if so, I have spent the last 7 hours fixing my system and removing all traces of BD and reinstalling Kaspersky and configuring all the firewall permissions for each app in Kaspersky and so on, and the system is working right now as it should and 4 anti malware programs came up with nothing (i.e. zero infections, and those scans took all day).
I just feel it's counter productive in my particular situation to uninstall Kaspersky and Malwarebytes (otherwise BD won't install) to re install BD and start again, it's just too many hours of work. The dll issue on windoiws restart is still happening after all that, so something has definitely been corrupted and a DISM restore health and SFC commands did not fix it unfortunately. So I am still going to wipe the system and do a fresh Win 11 install. I am not THAT upset about it, as I can install a fresh copy of 24H2 Win 11 on a completely clean drive, and not install any demos and any other junk this time, it will just be my games, my music and video apps and Kaspersky (as well as Emsisoft offline emergency kit scanner for second opinion). I will have defender periodic scanning disabled also, just Kaspersky and Emsisoft for 2nd opinion and that's absolute it.
Look, Kaspersky is having 2 false positives today so it has its issues also. It's 2 steam games from the same developer. A couple years back, Malwarebytes and defender did not like those games (different PC) and would not let them launch, now they have updated their apps to not have the false positive, but Kaspersky is now having it where in the past it was fine with the 2 games.
My point is, that all in real time, I was adding exceptions with Kaspersky and restoring from quarantine never fails and the exception just works, absolutely no reboot needed.
I am fairly certain I have made my decision, I have even disabled windows integrated core isolation now as suggested by kasperslky so kaspersky can handle the hardware virtualisation. I have spent hours tweaking everything to perfection, so I am sorry, but I DO appreciate your offer, thank you for caring, but for me sadly, it is too late.
:)
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I see.. alright then, we tried, but thank you so much for sharing all this detailed information here, and maybe we'll cross paths again in the future. You can come back here anytime, regardless of the antivirus you are using.
Regards
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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This post has been closed to further comments.
Regards
Life happens, Coffee helps!
Show your Attitude, when you reach that Altitude!
Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (user)
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