GWX.EXE – What You Need To Know About It
You may see gwx.exe in your task manager and are wondering whether it’s safe, or a virus/trojan. Or perhaps you’ve noticed a new logo on the notification bar of your laptop and are concerned it may be adware.
Whatever your concern, we have your back. Below is an explanation of exactly what gwx.exe is and does. And whether you need to remove it.
What Is GWX.exe?
File Details
Filename:
Designer:
Description:
Size:
gwx.exe
Microsoft
Get Windows 10 Application
428 kB
The logo mentioned above is run by the gwx executable program automatically installed on all Windows 7 and 8 version of the Windows operating system.
It stands for “Get Windows X” (the ‘Windows X’ refers to Windows 10 and relates to advertising software launched by the developers of Microsoft to capture the attention of the Windows users. The gwx.exe file is used to prompt Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 to persuade them to upgrade to Windows 10.
Is GWX.Exe Safe?
The logo may be slightly annoying but the program is harmless.
The problem comes when a virus or trojan writers mask their harmful software by calling it something similar, or even the same, as programs such as gwx.
Such files are commonly found in the C:\Windows\System32\GWX\ folder. The symptoms of such file in your computer system include;
- Automatic deletion of files
- Software failure
- Continuous error messages
- Slow computer functions processing
How To Check A File’s Location
a. Press ctrl-alt-del
b. Click on the ‘Details Tab’ as below:
c. Highlight the gwx.exe file as above
d. Right click and click ‘Properties’ to get the following screen:
e. Note the location (circled)
Well, now you know that if your Windows 7/8/8.1 is causing problems, there is a chance that the gwx.exe file has attacked your PC. The virus tends to enter the system through various deceptive techniques such as:
- Signing up on unauthorized links
- Installation of APKs and malicious programs
- Visiting unsafe websites
How To Remove gwx.exe
- The first step is to own the file. To do that, go to the properties and choose the Security tab. From the Security tab, click on “advanced” and edit the name of the owner and add your account details. Before closing the tabs, select the option that says subfolders and just save the changes.
P.S you might be given a warning; we suggest that you completely ignore them
- The second step is to change the folder permissions by right-clicking the folder and click on “edit” Then, tap on the user and change the pre-defined settings to the full control and save the changes. After that, change the name of the folder as you like, and you can even use the extensions to hinder the executability of the files.
- In the third step, you have to go through the registry editor, and here you have to delete a few entries. To do that, carefully glance over the entries and find the find with six random hash values. Find such an entry and delete it.
- Go to the task scheduler, and if it complains about missing tasks, congratulations, you have successfully deleted and removed the gwx.exe file from your computer
