What Is “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” Pop-up?
“Automatic Update. There is a Recommended Update for this PC…” pop-up is not actually generated by the Windows OS, it is caused by a PUP (potentially unwanted program) and its purpose is to trick you into installing more unwanted programs. This PUP had probably being installed on your computer together with some program you’ve downloaded from a freeware site. Another possibility is you’ve downloaded a file (PDF, video, etc.) from an untrustworthy site, and that file ended up to be a malware downloader (tip: if you double-click a file downloaded from a shady site and nothing happens, it is possible that a malicious process was just launched in the background). You may follow this removal guide to get rid of the PUP and stop “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” pop-up from appearing again.
How to Remove “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” Pop-up
The easiest method to stop “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” pop-ups is to run an anti-malware program capable of detecting PUPs in general and the one causing “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” pop-ups in particular. SpyHunter is a powerful anti-malware solution that protects you against malware, spyware, ransomware and other types of Internet threats. SpyHunter is available for Windows and macOS devices.
Other software that may be able to get rid of “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” message:
Norton (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) The link may not work correctly if your country is currently under sanctions.
You can also try to remove “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” PUP by hand using the following instructions.
Remove “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” Pop-up From Programs and Features:
Go to Programs and Features, uninstall any suspicious programs, programs you don’t remember installing, or programs you installed just before “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” message started popping up on your computer. When you are not sure if a program is safe, look for the answer on the Internet.
Windows XP:
- Click Start.
- In the Start menu select Settings => Control Panel.
- Find and click Add or Remove Programs.
- Highlight the app.
- Click Remove.
Windows Vista:
- Click Start.
- In the Start menu select Control Panel.
- Find and click Uninstall a program.
- Highlight the app.
- Click Uninstall.
Windows 7:
- Click Start.
- In the Start menu select Control Panel.
- Find and select Programs and Features or Uninstall a program.
- Highlight the app.
- Click Uninstall.
Windows 8 / Windows 8.1:
- Press and hold Windows key
and hit X key. - Select Programs and Features from the menu.
- Highlight the app.
- Click Uninstall.
and hit X key.Windows 10:
- Press and hold Windows key and hit X key.
- Select Programs and Features from the menu.
- Highlight the app.
- Click Uninstall.
Delete files generating “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” pop-up:
If the pop-up still appears, you may try the following method (for advanced users):
- After the message pops up next time, open Task Manager (right-click on the Task bar and select Task Manager).
- Find the process responsible for the pop-up.
- Right-click the process and select Open file location
- A folder wiil open with one of the files highlighted.
- Go back to the Task Manager, right-click the same task and select End Task. The pop-up will dissapear.
- Go to the open folder again and delete the highlighted file.
How to Protect Your PC From Potentially Unwanted Programs:
- Get a powerful anti-malware software, capable of detecting and eliminating PUPs. Having several on-demand scanners would be a good idea too.
- Keep Windows firewall enabled or get a third-party one.
- Keep your OS, browsers and security utilities updated. Malware creators find new browser and OS vulnerabilities to exploit all the time. Software writers, in turn, release patches and updates to get rid of the known vulnerabilities and lesser the chance of malware penetration. Antivirus program’s signature databases get updated every day and even more often to include new virus signatures.
- Adjust your browsers’ settings to block pop-ups and to load plug-ins only when clicked.
- Download and use Adblock, Adblock Plus, uBlock or one of the similar trustworthy extensions for blocking third-party advertisements on web-sites.
- Don’t just click on any link you see while browsing the web. That applies particularly to links in comments, on forums, or in instant messengers. Pretty often these are spam links. Sometimes they are used for increasing the traffic to websites, but often enough they will land you on pages that will try to execute a malicious code and infect your computer. Links from your friends are suspect too: the person who shares a cute video might not know that the page contains threatening script.
- Don’t download software from unverified web-sites. You can easily download a trojan (malware that pretends to be a useful application); or some unwanted programs could get installed along with the app.
- When installing freeware or shareware, be sensible and don’t rush through the process. Choose Custom or Advanced installation mode, look for checkboxes that ask for your permission to install third-party apps and uncheck them, read End User License Agreement to make sure nothing else is going to get installed. You can make exceptions for the apps you know and trust, of course. If declining from installing unwanted programs is not possible, we advise you to cancel the installation completely.
I don’t appreciate how one of the tools (Hitmanpro) listed on this article downloads and installs a completely different program (Spyhunter4), which won’t even allow the removal of threats without registering and paying 50$.
Thank you for your comment, Dex Luther.
I double-checked: the “HitmanPro” link leads to
www.hitmanpro.comsite where you can download HitmanPro. Only the green button downloads SpyHunter. Also, if you are not willing to pay, SpyHunter can still be used to assist you in manual removal: after running a scan the program shows you all found malicious files and registry entries which you can then remove by hand. Of the other suggested programs, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has a free version and HitmanPro allows for a 30-day free trial.If you want more alternatives, AdwCleaner (free) and Zemana AntiMalware (free trial) are worth a shot.
gracias por su ayuda
I installed Malaware AntiMalware as suggested in this article and ran it. It removed a number of “pup”s but about 10 days after install “There is a Recommended Update for this PC” Pop-up showed up again.
How can I get rid of it permanently
mouse over the taskbar icon for the pop-up, it will show something like C:\User\foo\bar which gives a clue to where the process running it is located. mine said it was in Appdata, but i couldn’t see the rest of the path just by mousing over.
then i used the task manager method. ideally close everything else running in the background so there are less processes running and inspect the list of tasks for strange looking names or abnormal icons.
in mine it had an outdated looking icon, i clicked it and it showed the process was from Appdata\Local\{02B834E4-2610-585C-4B88-7DB46FE0812C}. to find Appdata i had to click View and check “Hidden files” box. I deleted the folder titled “{02B834E4-2610-585C-4B88-7DB46FE0812C}” (abnormal name) and I’m waiting to see if the pop-up comes back.
Did deleting that folder work to keep the annoying pop-up from coming back?
All useless.
I downloaded SpyHunter 4 and it found over 100+ objects. I stopped the scanning before it finished…. It wanted 39$ to remove everything it found. I tried uninstalling but before i could it offered a 75% discount.(I could buy it for 10$) Which i was gonna do….. But i also installed ADW cleaner. It didn’t find nearly as much, but for some unknown reason it actually removed Spyhunter from My computer. How strange.
So i scanned using MalwareBytes and it found 135 threats.(Most of these threats were from something called “Geek buddy”.) However what’s really interesting is that it classified Spyhunter-Installer.exe as a PUP.
Oh, Malwarebytes updated its criteria of PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) some months ago. You can read about it in their blog post. You may notice people in the comments section disagree with some programs marked as PUPs.
As for AdwCleaner, it has been bought by Malwarebytes last year, so I imagine they share the same views now.
I just went through the logs of the update, and found out where the .exe for the recommended update popup is. For me, it was in C:\Windows\Temp\CR_06CD2.tmp , so if you have any problems with it continuing to pop up, it is likely somewhere in that temp folder. The 2 files in it are named “setup.exe” and “SETUP_PATCH.PACKED.7Z”, hopefully this will help some of you too!
I just checked and I had a very similar folder name with the same two files inside it. I’ve tried deleting it and am hoping it works! Thank you.
The Window “This is a recommended update for your PC” pops up after I have used IE. It cannot be closed. When I check the Task Manager the task which causes this window to pop up is “Microsoft (R) HTML Application host”. When I check the details of this task apparently the file is mshta.exe which cannot be deleted or uninstalled.
When I click “end task” for Microsoft (R) HTML Application host the window “This is…..” closes. So it is a well known issue with IE and Microsoft probably know it too.
See YT March 15
That’s exactly what I had.
Deleting folder worked fine
How can I find what task is causing the pop-up using task manager? There are a ton of tasks running I don’t know which is which.