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Not this type of pup…

Applies to: Everyone.

What on earth is a PUP?

A PUP (Potentially Unwanted Software) is a program which is installed either manually by you or is installed along with another (wanted) program.

One of the more common types of PUP’s around are ones which promise to give you Driver Updates for free but then asks for money to complete the process.

How do I know if a program is a PUP

Quite often a PUP will pop up ‘offers’ or say something is free and then try to charge for it. Or offer X number of things for free then suddenly ask for money.

If you are unsure if a program or popup is genuine or not just pop onto The Clubroom and let us know the name of the program and we can check for you.

I know I have a PUP, what should I do next

Our advice is that if you are sure you have a PUP is to uninstall it and don’t pay them any money.

But what about the promised [thing the PUP is offering e.g. Driver Updates] ?

Most often (and especially driver updates) Windows will manage these for you and you should not worry. Quite often a PUP says they are out of date or recommend a fix, this is a common tactic to get people to pay for updates which are not needed.

More than Driver Updates

I have talked a lot about Driver Updates here, but PUPs can do all sorts of other things, from displaying their own adverts over websites to changing browser home pages. Some more nasty ones even decrease the security of your computer to allow hackers in (these are often picked up by antivirus programs though).

Other thoughts

You should make sure you have an anti-virus program installed and that it is running.

There are too many PUPs to name here. But hopefully, we’ve given you enough of the warning signs to watch out for.

Any thoughts, comments or questions, just pop a note in the space below, or on The Clubroom.
Stay Safe
Mike 🙂