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Microsoft says Gmail is a virus

by Jordan Running on November 13, 2006 at 04:00 PM

Did you know that every time you log onto Gmail you're getting infected? Okay, okay, you're probably not, but Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare thinks otherwise. Many OneCare users are reporting that every time they access Gmail, they are confronted by an alert telling them that the page is infected with the BAT/BWG.A virus. Unless Google has really ramped up its world domination schedule, it's almost certainly a false positive, and though calling its competitors' products viruses is certainly the kind of thing we like to pin on Microsoft, it's more than likely a coincidence. Whether Microsoft will be remedying the trouble in their definitions or Google will be tweaking Gmail's code to ditch the false positive remains to be seen.

Tags: bat/bwg.a, false positive, FalsePositive, gmail, google, microsoft, onecare, virus, windows live, WindowsLive

Comments

Bryce FischerNov 13th 2006 5:33PM

Neutral

THANKS.... I was seeing that yesterday and wasn't sure why. I'm glad its not just me...

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CalebNov 13th 2006 9:10PM

Neutral

Yes!!! I was thinking that my computer was going crazy because I was even telling it to get rid of the virus and it just acted like it was ignoring me.

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aNov 13th 2006 8:48PM

Neutral

hahaahahahhaaa....you cant go wrong with microsoft lol

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wildweaselNov 13th 2006 11:45PM

Neutral

Reminds me of when I tried installing Win98SE on a computer that had a motherboard with built-in boot sector virus checking. Every time I tried to run the install program, the BIOS would pop up some warning about a program overwriting the boot sector and prompting me to kill the application responsible (in this case, rebooting the computer).

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Danish MunirNov 15th 2006 1:40AM

Neutral

I've been using Live OneCare for > 2 months now on various Vista builds, and I use gmail daily, all the time, and have not had this problem. I'm sure its nothing serious, and something that can be fixed by adding gmail to the trusted sites or something.

I really wish people would stop jumping at every single opportunity to bash Microsoft and their products. I mean have you gone out and used the different antivirus products out there in the market? Live OneCare beats the crap Symantec and McAfee ship hands down. Its the simplest, most effective, and most resource friendly, one-stop Pc Protection tool out there. You would think that maybe when reporting a flaw you would care to mention any of the good points about the product inorder not to bias people against it, just because of one tiny problem some people are having. Have you mentioned how MANY times Norton has told users that the games they play are viruses?

I'm disappointed in you DLS....

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