What is dpupdchk.exe and Why Is It Running?
You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering what on earth that
dpupdchk.exe process is doing in your Task Manager window… there’s no description and
it just keeps coming back.
So what is it anyway?
In case you aren’t sure what we’re talking about, if you sort by “Image Name”
you might
see something similar to the screenshot below. And that’s what we’ll be explaining
to you today.
So What Is It Anyway?
This process is some type of automatic update checker from Microsoft IntelliPoint
(as far as we can tell), but here’s how we actually
diagnosed it…
First, if you are using Vista you can right-click on the process and choose to
Open File Location.
…which will open up the containing folder, so you can drill down into exactly what the file
is by looking at the properties. Unfortunately, this process just has zero
information
in the properties
dialog…
shame on you, Microsoft!
Further investigation led me into the registry, and by using the
Process Monitor utility
from
Sysinternals I was able to determine that the process was querying a registry
key named “Intellipoint Pro Auto Update”…
a clear giveaway that this process has to do with updating of some type.
Then there’s also the fact that in the start menu is a shortcut using a similar icon that says
Check for Updates. It’s one of those special shortcuts that you can’t see the
target for…
one has to wonder why they bothered to
make
this so complicated.
Dear Microsoft: If you are reading this article, perhaps you might leave a comment and shed some light on what it’s really doing. Then you might want to start learning how to document things.
How Do I Get Rid of It?
Keep in mind that removing pieces of Microsoft software without fully understanding what
they are is probably a bad idea and shouldn’t be attempted by anybody
under
any
circumstances ever, even slightly,
probably.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way… here’s where we stand:
You can take
one of two routes to get rid of it:
The problem is that if you delete the dpupdchk.exe file, every single time you
open the
mouse panel you will get horrible errors. Since we like to avoid
horrible errors,
I’ve created a dummy executable that does nothing at all, which you can
replace thecurrent one
with.
First, browse down to the following folder (adjusting if necessary for your install path).
(using the handy Take Ownership script if necessary to gain access).
![image[5]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uK7tEZi-t4pwE063kgy1T1DYOAgKPm1ZaE-BoIGCo9RqFDFrQxBwAV4PHO38VIe4Gume6Z9jStJTkDBAa3C7_sWcvAv_HWXvRiXenLNJwnht12cMlynm475un2XwUBJGytiA=s0-d "image[5]")
Once you’ve renamed that file, replace it with this fake dpupdchk.exe file created by the
fine folks here at How-To Geek. It’s a blank executable that does nothing, but feel free to
scan it with at least 74 anti-virus engines if you’d like to make
sure.
And thus ends the tale of the phantom dpupdchk process. But what about svchost.exe, jusched.exe,
or dwm.exe? The journey continues!
dpupdchk.exe process is doing in your Task Manager window… there’s no description and
it just keeps coming back.
So what is it anyway?
In case you aren’t sure what we’re talking about, if you sort by “Image Name”
you might
see something similar to the screenshot below. And that’s what we’ll be explaining
to you today.
So What Is It Anyway?
This process is some type of automatic update checker from Microsoft IntelliPoint
(as far as we can tell), but here’s how we actually
diagnosed it…
First, if you are using Vista you can right-click on the process and choose to
Open File Location.
…which will open up the containing folder, so you can drill down into exactly what the file
is by looking at the properties. Unfortunately, this process just has zero
information
in the properties
dialog…
shame on you, Microsoft!
Further investigation led me into the registry, and by using the
Process Monitor utility
from
Sysinternals I was able to determine that the process was querying a registry
key named “Intellipoint Pro Auto Update”…
a clear giveaway that this process has to do with updating of some type.
Then there’s also the fact that in the start menu is a shortcut using a similar icon that says
Check for Updates. It’s one of those special shortcuts that you can’t see the
target for…
one has to wonder why they bothered to
make
this so complicated.
Dear Microsoft: If you are reading this article, perhaps you might leave a comment and shed some light on what it’s really doing. Then you might want to start learning how to document things.
How Do I Get Rid of It?
Keep in mind that removing pieces of Microsoft software without fully understanding what
they are is probably a bad idea and shouldn’t be attempted by anybody
under
any
circumstances ever, even slightly,
probably.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way… here’s where we stand:
You can take
one of two routes to get rid of it:
- Uninstall IntelliPoint in Control Panel (losing extra mouse functionality)
- Replace the dpupdchk.exe file with a dummy file that does nothing.
The problem is that if you delete the dpupdchk.exe file, every single time you
open the
mouse panel you will get horrible errors. Since we like to avoid
horrible errors,
I’ve created a dummy executable that does nothing at all, which you can
replace thecurrent one
with.
First, browse down to the following folder (adjusting if necessary for your install path).
Now rename the existing dpupdchk.exe file to something elseCode:C:\Program Files\Microsoft IntelliPoint
(using the handy Take Ownership script if necessary to gain access).
Once you’ve renamed that file, replace it with this fake dpupdchk.exe file created by the
fine folks here at How-To Geek. It’s a blank executable that does nothing, but feel free to
scan it with at least 74 anti-virus engines if you’d like to make
sure.
And thus ends the tale of the phantom dpupdchk process. But what about svchost.exe, jusched.exe,
or dwm.exe? The journey continues!
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