Google Pushes Update For Chrome to Fix Faulty Microsoft Malware Detection

Google has pushed out an update for its Chrome browser that fixes a problem caused by the incident last week in which Microsoft Security Essentials mistakenly detected the browser as the Zeus bot and removed it from some machines. The update should automatically fix any damaged Chrome installations.

The problem was caused by an erroneous update in the Microsoft Security Essentials antimalware tool that on Friday began detecting the Chrome file as a piece of malware called "PWS:Win32/Zbot", which is another name for the Zeus bot, the infamous banking Trojan that has been wreaking havoc for several years. Users immediately began noticing the problem and Microsoft pushed out an emergency update to the antimalware suite to fix the issue on their end.

But some users still had problems and couldn't get Chrome to work again, even after it was reinstalled. So Google has released an update for the browser that will repair it. The company said that if the browser is running fine on your PC, then there's no need to take any further actions. The new update to Chrome should prevent users from having to uninstall and reinstall Chrome themselves.

There's more information on the new updates on the Google Chrome Releases blog. The company also has step-by-step instructions for users who need to know how to manually uninstall and reinstall the browser.