Misleading:Win32/Lodi!MSR

Misleading:Win32/Lodi!MSR is a detection name used by the Windows Defender Antivirus. It is important to note that this detection is not associated with a particular piece of software or file and, instead, it is a so-called heuristic-based detection. This technique is being used by every reputable anti-virus product, and it allows anti-virus engines to scan files to look for particular suspicious properties – positive matches are not always a guarantee that a file is harmful, so it is entirely possible that you may see the Misleading:Win32/Lodi!MSR alert being reported for a file downloaded from a safe source.

Although, in many cases, the Misleading:Win32/Lodi!MSR alert may turn out to be a false positive, it is never a good idea to ignore it without investigating further. If your Windows security features report this detection, then we advise you to use a 3rd-party anti-virus scanner to check the file in question for suspicious traits.

Usually, the Misleading:Win32/Lodi!MSR issue is being reported for software that may display fake or exaggerated claims regarding PC issues such as Registry optimizations, disk cleanup potential, etc. Often, applications of this sort are categorized as Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs.) As we already mentioned, seeing the Misleading:Win32/Lodi!MSR alert for a file you downloaded does not mean that you are dealing with a PUP necessarily – we advise you to run a secondary anti-virus scan to ensure that the file is safe to use, and it will not cause any unexpected side effects.