Google Chrome - File Is Not Commonly Downloaded and May Be Dangerous

Google Chrome might block and warn you that a file is not commonly downloaded and may be dangerous. Here's all you need to know.

Google Chrome has a built-in virus and malware scanner and is trying to protect you. This error message means one of 2 things.

The file is malware, or possibly has third-party software, also commonly referred to as Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP's) or Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUA's)

A false positive, often because it's not recognized. Google Chrome, like many antivirus programs, then guesses. This is known as heuristics.

This is the bain for new authors as since the antivirus programs has never seen the program before, in an abundance of caution, The AV assumes danger until proven otherwise -

Most of the time, it helps if you know what you're downloading. You have a few options here. Google Chrome has never offered the option to disable the scanning of files, so if you're looking for that, forget it; you have to deal with it every time.

If you know the file is safe, or you want to scan the file, click on the arrow to the right of Discard and click on Keep.



If you're not sure, you need to be careful. We'd scan the file on VirusTotal and see if anyone else has scanned it or any comments.

Finally, you can run the file in a virtual machine. Using a Virtual Machine like VMWare Player is something we love to do, but you still need to scan the file and watch for suspicious behavior.

Be sure to read our Similar links below for more information on how Google Chrome protects you from malware.

Similar:

Download May Be Dangerous, so Chrome Has Blocked It

How-To Use the Google Chrome Malware Scanner & Cleanup Tool

Disable the Google Chrome Software Reporter Tool

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