I thought I had seen the end of this issue, but a user reported to me the other day that AVG was flagging QuickHash as being infected with FileRepMetagen malware.
Thankfully the user contacted me and we established that the issue was a false positive with AVG. This is not uncommon and I have seen reports of even mainstream hardcore forensic tools sometimes being flagged, falsely, by AV software.
I have no idea for sure how AV software works other than besides searching for know virus executables it also conducts heuristic scanning of files that MAY be suspicious based on certain criteria. QuickHash does have some fairly intricate mechanisms, especially in the disk hashing arena where it needs fairly low level access to the disk. I suspect this is what causes the problem because it needs admin rights and so on to do some of those tasks.
Suffice to say that QuickHash is not a virus or malware! It has no hidden adverts or dodgy things. It is open source after all!! The problem is that I have seen instances where malicious people are using its name to distribute virus packages in its name. So please only download the program from here. If you don’t, then you run the risk.
I have no particular reason to believe what you say, but seeing that your blog is pretty up to date and you sound like you know your program well makes me inclined to believe you. No offense meant, I am just jaded. I am actually not using this program (but now that I’ve stumbled upon it I probably will someday)! I hate that the exclamation point has to go after the parentheses; it looks so awkward. Anyways, I had downloaded a copy of KMP-Connect (remote access to PC media files when using KMplayer on android). When I tried to install it I got the same PUP alert, from avast – it’s free, its kinda lightweight, it works, and it doesn’t put a stranglehold on my computer like Norton, AVG or McAfee. I threw it in the virus chest while I was researching what the issue was. I had downloaded it directly from their legit site and they have a relatively good reputation and it is actually a pretty popular media player, so I’ve noticed, mostly in Asia. I kept typing different variations of what the problem was into DuckDuckGo and after a million bot sites regurgitating simple virus removal methods, I read your summary and it sounded like it was written by a human. So here I am. I still don’t know what exactly is causing it to appear as malware, but since it has shown up as a false positive for your program, I think I am going to make a restore point and just install the player. I will mark it as a false positive for now. Wish me luck!