I downloaded the latest version and when trying to install Windows, it won't allow me because it detects malware. I ran it through VirusTotal and it shows that it contains the following malware:

Did you download the Winstep app directly from the official Winstep website? If so, unless I'm very much mistaken we've never seen any kind of malware attached to Winstep software, so I would assume this to be a false positive - a common problem with AV apps. If on the other hand you did not download from the official Winstep website, then anything's possible so, worry!

False positive, of course.

Unfortunately it's not a rare occurrence whenever a new version comes out.

You did well in uploading the file to VirusTotal, congratulations. Notice that from **71 different AV engines** only 1, the obscure Bkav Pro, flags an issue.

Whenever something like this happens and the remaining MAJOR and reputable AV engines (such as ESET, BitDefender, Avast, etc) do not find anything, you can be pretty sure it's a false positive. Now if you have a *bunch* of AV engines flagging a problem, including the major ones, then that's something else.

Unfortunately some AV vendors like to throw the baby out with the bathwater. For instance, if they detect that an application is "listening" to key strokes when it doesn't have the focus, they immediately assume the worst (e.g. a keylogger waiting to steal all your bank passwords), despite there being multiple and very legit reasons for applications to do so (such as "listening" for hotkeys and other activation methods in the case of the Winstep apps)

always from the official page, that's why it seemed very strange to me that the malware alert popped up, for now I'll stop using the dock until the alert no longer appears.

Please Read This! You're in the clear, it's a false positive of course!