Further investigation revealed that the preactivated version of Photoshop CC 2020 that Alex had downloaded had been tampered with. The software had been bundled with malicious code that had compromised Alex's computer and put their sensitive data at risk.
– Windows Defender or third-party AV can delete the _preactivated files. Disable real-time protection before extraction.
Many preactivated releases modify system hosts files or use keygen-like mechanisms. Antivirus software (especially Windows Defender) may falsely flag these as threats. Ensure you have verified the source is safe, then disable real-time protection until installation completes.