Unexplained pop-up message.

July 23, 2021 11:53 AM

On our Windows 10 machine, we are getting an unexplained popup message as seen here. The icon in the tray says it's from hpUpdate. I've deleted hpUpdate. The PC is an HP product, but I think the message was generated out of programs related to our recently departed HP printer. Current printer is a Brother. Or, it could be spam not related to anything much. Has anyone any info? I have not yet run malwarebytes, but I guess that's something to try.
posted by SemiSalt to Technology (11 answers total)

That link does not work for me. It tries to get me to login to a Google account.
posted by primethyme at 11:59 AM on July 23, 2021

I am logged into a Google account but am told that access is denied.
posted by essexjan at 12:12 PM on July 23, 2021

1. I think I might need to run Malwarebytes on my computer.
2. To help confirm that, click on this file I uploaded to Google Drive!
3. ???

(Google supposedly does scan uploads, but this seems a little… hmmm.)
posted by zamboni at 12:19 PM on July 23, 2021

Revised link.

Well, zamboni, I totally understand how much it looks sketchy. So, I'll describe it.

Title = Software & Drivers.
Plain white message box.
Text = "We are sorry! Software & Drivers can only be run by one user at a time. Please switch to the user who is currently running it and close the program. "
Box to click on OK.
posted by SemiSalt at 12:32 PM on July 23, 2021

Suggest you copy and paste the text of the dialog here, don't make people open a file.
posted by signal at 12:32 PM on July 23, 2021

Have you restarted your computer since you "deleted" hpUpdate (and I hope that means uninstalled)?
posted by sagc at 12:54 PM on July 23, 2021

I get a message like that occasionally on some HP computer hardware analysis/management software, especially when I login as admin while another account is open and running. I just close it and go on my way. My message is a bit more descriptive than yours, in that it gives the proper HP product name, but it gives the same "sorry" and "one user at a time" type message.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:12 PM on July 23, 2021

You can find out which program the dialog box came from if you are willing to download a system utility called process explorer. It's from a famous team called Sysinternals. They were so famous, the set of utilities were purchased by Microsoft and gets official MS blessing.

Here's how you use it:

https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/determine-program-process-owns-error-message-window/
posted by kschang at 1:16 PM on July 23, 2021

1. Agree with sagc, restart if you haven't done so; also agree that process explorer might help identify the culprit.

2. Do you have multiple user accounts set up on that computer (for example one for parents that has admin rights, one for children that's more limited)? If so try switching to that other account (Windows Start > Power icon and click 'Switch to other user') and see if anything was left running. If you're not sure another account exists, go to Windows Start > Settings icon (gear) > Accounts > Family & other users (or Control Panel > User Accounts) and see what other accounts are listed.

3. Also, not to alarm you - it may or may not apply in your case - but there's been a couple of Windows print-spooler vulnerabilities identified lately (first one; second one) and it might be worth following up on those just in case.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:43 PM on July 23, 2021

I personally don't think this is malware, this feels more like the hp update software didn't correctly uninstall itself. This is common with weird vendor stuff. If it happens exactly once at startup, then you can make it go away by deleting it from your startup info. You can get to this from the Task Manager's startup tab, look for an HP thing. Here's some more detailed instructions.

If it's happening multiple times per session, then something deeper is broken and repairing it might be irritating. Vendor software is kind of always awful.
posted by JZig at 2:56 PM on July 23, 2021

For the record, HPupdate was uninstalled. The computer is turned off every night.

I uninstalled another HP program that seemed to be linked in the comments I found on line. HPSupportAssistant, I think it was. The popup has not appeared today (yet), so I think that may have done the trick.
posted by SemiSalt at 12:58 PM on July 24, 2021