Security softwares like antivirus and antispywares can sometimes be overzealous when it comes to detecting malware. You may sometimes find that after updating to the latest definitions, Autorun Eater is suddenly flagged as a malware! This is not true and there’s nothing to be worried about. It is what you call a false positive detection. More info about false positives and how to determine if a virus is really a virus can be obtained here and here.
We would like to assure all our users that Autorun Eater does NOT contain any malware nor is it a malware itself. If you come across any other false positive problems, please feel free to report it to us or you can help us by reporting the problem to your vendor.
False positive examples provided by António, an Autorun Eater user:
Tags: application, autorun eater, autorun virus, autorun.inf, avira antivir, false positive, lavasoft ad-aware, security, software
November 15, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Hi,
Just to let you know that Macafee 8.5i also detects Autorun Eater as a Trojan and disables it, which is really annoying. Great job by the way.
Old McDonald: Thank you for the info!
September 17, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I have been using AutorunEater since v2.0 and i love it!
I’ve been using it with Bitdefender Internet Security and it works perfectly.
When I tried it with Panda Internet Security 2010, however, it was tagged as a suspicious file, and was quarantined. I know it’s a false positive, but it might do well if we contact Panda regarding this…
Thanks and more power.
Old McDonald: Thank you for the info! These false positives have certainly been a pain in the rear!
June 27, 2010 at 5:09 pm
been using this for a while.
avast detects it as; Malware Was Found
File name: “C:\Program Files\Autorun Eater\billy.exe”;
Malware name: “Win32:AutoRun-BLJ [Drp]”;
Malware type: “Dropper
VPS version: “100626-1, 26.06.2010
Old McDonald: Thank you for the info! Will contact Avast.
May 10, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Hi guys !!!
I´m very happy to have the new version 2.5. It’s a great job and i need to say to all of you THANK YOU for your time and efforts to offer us this great tool !!!
The bad new is that when i download the file in a machine with NOD32 installed report a virus inside the installer.
I know that is a false positive. The version of NOD32 is 4.0.314.0 and the virus reported is WIN32/PACKED.AUTOIT.GEN, inside the files script.au3
Have a nice day and thank you again with my best regards from Quito – Ecuador, the land of the middle of the world.
Sincerely
Wilson Avellaneda
Old McDonald: Hi! You’re welcome! Thank you for the info, I’ve informed ESET about the problem, hopefully they’ll fix it ASAP. Have a great day!
March 10, 2010 at 6:13 pm
AVG found auto eater, oldmacdonald exe., abd billy exe., in my Bart PE folder.
C:\UBCD4Win\plugin\Antispyware\AutoEater\files\oldmacdonald.exe\autE.tmp
C:\UBCD4Win\plugin\Antispyware\AutoEater\files\billy.exe\aut1B.tmp
Old McDonald: I’ll inform AVG about the problem. Thank you for the info!
February 25, 2010 at 10:58 am
Sir,
While eset nod 32 antivirus reports that some of the exe files of autorun eater as potentially unwanted programme, mcafee reports autorun eater back up as virus “generic atr”. Hope atleast this gets your attention.
Old McDonald: Thank you for the info!
February 12, 2010 at 7:18 am
When I booted my computer this morning, the resident shield of AVG9-Free detected a threat. It said: “Virus identified Worm/Autoit.ADTK.”
AVG said the program infected is AutorunEater’s oldmcdonald.exe. Two years ago I loaded Autorun on my desktop computer because of recommendations in the CNET forums. In all this time, AutorunEater has been quiet, so I was surprised to see AVG suddenly name it a threat.
I didn’t know what to do so I sent the entire file – OldMacDonald.exe – to the AVG Virus Vault. It is in my AVG vault now.
Why would AVG not have a problem with AutorunEater for years and suddenly call it a threat? Interestingly, someone else over at the MajorGeeks.com Forum claims to have the same story as me also just now! He, too, had never had a problem with AutorunEater until this morning.
Based on new information from the CNET’s Virus Forum, I have restored OldMacDonald.exe to my computer.
Old McDonald: It’s a false positive. I’ve contacted AVG and got a reply from them saying that the problem should be solved in the next definitions update. You can restore the file from the vault to its original location. Be rest assured that Autorun Eater is safe to use and does not contain any malware of any kind.
February 11, 2010 at 1:17 pm
We use AVG’s network version and it identified as Worm/Autoit.ADTK and Worm/Autoit.ADTJ. The files that AVG detected are C:\Program Files\Autorun Eater\oldmcdonald.exe and C:\Program Files\Autorun Eater\billy.exe.
Old McDonald: Yup, I just got to know about it too. I’ll contact AVG about it. Thank you for the info!
February 11, 2010 at 4:17 am
basically what i think is causing multiple scanners to trip
is that u have something named billy.exe which to many companies is a bad virus.
Old McDonald: Not really about the name but other malwares using the same language. It’s been a constant pain in the rear.
February 11, 2010 at 4:08 am
been using this for a while.
avg detects it as a virus heres a copy paste
“C:\Program Files\Autorun Eater\billy.exe”;”Virus identified Worm/Autoit.ADTJ”;”Infected”
“C:\Program Files\Autorun Eater\oldmcdonald.exe”;”Virus identified Worm/Autoit.ADTK”;”Infected”
[EDITED TO REMOVE DUPLICATE ENTRIES]
thats avg after leaving my comp on for 1hour.
Old McDonald: It’s a false positive and I’ll contact AVG about this problem. Hopefully it gets solved soon. Thank you for the info!
January 28, 2010 at 5:18 am
Hi Mate,
been using autoruneater 2.5 now. am awaiting its public release.
and to just notify you, immunet protect is also flagging ae2.4 as malware. i havent checked ae2.5 against latest immunet version , will post it (anyways now they have exclusions in the software so i am using it)
symantec still is detecting ae2.4 as malicious.
Old McDonald: Thank you for the info. I’ll try to contact the AV companies about it.
January 27, 2010 at 1:17 am
Hello,
Just got an alarm from Comodo Internet Security that Autorun Eater is a Trojware, win32.Buzus.bdou@94719353 malware. I think this is probably a false positive. Confirm?
Autorun Eater v2.4
Windows XP
Comodo v3.13.126709.581 (virus signature 3719)
Old McDonald: Yes, it is indeed a false positive. Can you help us report this to Comodo so that they’re aware of the problem? Thank you and have a great day!
January 22, 2010 at 8:28 am
Nod32 also say tht is a virus
Old McDonald: Apparently these companies aren’t very fond of us.
Will see what I can do about it. Thank you for the info! 
January 18, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Hi friends
Today i have notices about Nod32 4.0 detects oldmacdonald.exe and billy.exe like infected. This is another false positive. Please take note about this.
Have a nice day.
With my best regards from Quito-Ecuador
Wilson Avellaneda
Old McDonald: Thank you for the info! Have a great day!
January 7, 2010 at 3:14 pm
Hi friends
The version of Oldmacdonald i’m using now is the beta 2.5. This version is not detected by F-Secure antivirus, but 2.4 is still detected how infected.
The version of Malwares’ bytes anti malware is 1.43.
The report is :
C:\downloads\AutorunEater2.5Beta\oldmcdonald.exe Trojan.Agent
C:\downloads\AutorunEater2.5Beta\billy.exe Trojan.Agent
Thanks for your attention.
With my best regards from Quito – Ecuador
Wilson Avellaneda
Old McDonald: Thank you for the info! We will see what we can do about it. Have a nice day!
January 5, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Hi friends of Oldmcdonald Farm
First of all my desires of a very happy 2010 for all of yours.
Today Malware’s bytes anti malware, after the update, detect Oldmacdonald.exe like a file infected with a trojan virus.
This is a new false positive from another antimalware.
Sorry for no post the screen, because i don’t know how do that.
Thanks for your attention.
With my best regards from Quito – Ecuador
Wilson Avellaneda
Old McDonald: It is a false positive detection. May I know which version of Autorun Eater are you using(as detected by Malwarebytes)? They have previously fixed the problem so it is puzzling why they’re detecting it as a malware again. Thank you for the info.
December 20, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Oh my god. My computer is really under the weather nowadays. My avira program is fighting with Autorun eater and I don’t know why. I can’t wait for this problem to be fixed.
Old McDonald: The false positive problem has been fixed by Avira. Please update to the latest definitions.
December 20, 2009 at 4:04 am
Before reading this, I experienced this Ad-Aware false positive, and posted it on the Ad-Aware site. My post was answered by an Ad-Aware employee, and the next update Ad-Aware did, it no longer detected Auto Run Eater as a Virus, Malware, etc., so Ad-Aware did take of this. And no I don’t work for them.
Old McDonald: Thank you for helping! We did send them a sample but got no reply. You took one step further by posting on their forum and got a prompt reply which is great! Thank you once again and have a nice day!
December 18, 2009 at 10:22 am
Hey Guys… I know that you have a problem about false positives… i would like to report to you about this case… I also found out that AVG Internet Security also sees this software is also a malware…
Old McDonald: What OS are you on? Could you email us the detection log as well as a screenshot of the problem? Thank you.
December 17, 2009 at 12:58 pm
مشكورين
Old McDonald: