Is search.exe safe or is this task spyware?



Purpose of search.exe:









File purpose and description:

This is adware, this will automatically display ads on your desktop using popup windows. If you are seeing pop-up windows appearing on your pc, and you see this search.exe program in your task list, then you have this pop-up adware. This is also called When U Search, but the purpose is to display ads on your screen. (See the details below for the actual location of this file.)

Actual file or task name:
search.exe

File type:
This is pop-up adware/spyware, and is an executable.

File or folder location:
You should do a Windows search to find the pop-up spyware.


General information:
Be aware that many tasks will be similiar names to existing tasks or processes. You can always view the running tasks on your computer by pressing ctrl-alt-del to view the windows "task manager", and then view the "processes" tab. This will show you all tasks running or currently active on your PC. Although this shows you all running tasks, it does not show dll file thats are loaded, as they get loaded as part of other processes. Many spyware writers attempt to hide their files on your computer, for example, search.exe may be intentionally misspelled to look like a similiar task, or spyware may be named very similiar to a Windows system task. The reason they do this is so you cannot easily recognize the name in your tasklist as I have mentioned above. Make sure always check the location of the file if you are concerned. You can always find the location of search.exe on your computer by using your Windows search options, but I will also try to list the file location of every file described on this website, so you can verify the correct location. You can view the entire tasklist directory with the link below.

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