A possible virus in my midst! It comes and goes

[mojouk]

Does anyone know about the virus called wuauclt.exe and whether it a virus. I've read some stuff about it, and apparently it's difficult to decide whether it is a virus (TrojanB or whatever) or a valid computer function

My computer was making a huge amount of sound for about 15 minutes with processor working flat out and 'wuauclt.exe' was on my task manager, then after the 15 or so minutes, 'wuauclt.exe' dissapeared from the list.

The PC did not have anything open or running at the time.

The thing is, it's gone, and the PC has resumed sounding normal again.

I'm now wondering whether it's something that comes and goes, and if so how to get rid of it.

My antivirus software hasn't picked it up and I've run adaware and I have Sygate Firewall..

Does anyone know how to combat this particular virus?

 

[Adywebb]

Its part of the Windows AutoUpdate function, and seems OK:

Windows Update AutoUpdate Client. Background process which checks with Microsoft website for updates to the operating system. Shows up on the Task Manager's processes list when it is waiting for a response, e.g. to confirm permission to download an update.

Note: The wuauclt.exe file is located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. In other cases, wuauclt.exe is a virus, spyware, trojan or worm!

Do a file search and check to make sure its only in your System32 folder.

If you don't want to use the AutoUpdate function, do not delete the file, but go to Windows Security Centre>Automatic Updates and turn it off, or select 'notify me but don't automatically download or install them'

 

[mojouk]

Hi. Thanks for explaining that to me. I only found one copy of wuauclt.exe in the System32 folder, so everything appears OK.

Cheers!