Microsoft Updates And Bd Says "unknown"

I ran Microsoft Updates and BD gave me a message, warning that a program wanted to make changes to my registry so it would launch when Windows started. The program was shown as

nwiz.exe

BD then showed

Company: Unknown

Version: Unknown

I clicked NO for allowing it to make changes to my registry.

I then got a message on a different window in the center of my screen:

The following updates were not installed:

Microsoft Corporation - Video - NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX420 could not be updated.

Now, that would normally make me think that nwiz.exe has something to do with that update, however it seems that if it's a Microsoft update, it would be in a form that BD would recognize. Do you have any idea what nwiz.exe is?

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Comments

AndreiASM

You should let it go, I have it to in my registry. It is not malware.

Andrei

alexcrist

Hi Carol,

nwiz.exe is an application used by nVidia. You should allow this process to run at System Startup. This is the description found at http://www.processid.com/nwiz.exe.html :

This process is the NVIDIA nView Wizard which runs if you have a graphic card with an NVidia chipset in your system and you have the NVidia driver installed.

This utility provides you with extra features, including multi-desktop support.

I clicked NO for allowing it to make changes to my registry.

Maybe I understood wrong what you meant, but...

Clicking NO will prevent an application from modifying the registry. To allow it, you have to click YES.

Cris.

C-1000

Hi Carol,

nwiz.exe is an application used by nVidia. You should allow this process to run at System Startup. This is the description found at http://www.processid.com/nwiz.exe.html :

Maybe I understood wrong what you meant, but...

Clicking NO will prevent an application from modifying the registry. To allow it, you have to click YES.

Cris.

Cris, I did a Dogpile search on it, and several sites say that there is a valid file by that name for NVidea BUT there is also some malware going around that uses the exact same name. It concerned me that BD showed Company, Version and Copyright "Unknown." How do I know this isn't the "other" nwiz.exe and not the okay one?

Carol

alexcrist

Hi Carol,

The fact that BD showed Unknown on those fields is not BD's fault. If you want, send a mail to nVidia and tell them to complete their files' properties correctly.

A way to be sure about a specific file is to scan it with multiple AV products. If none of them reports any infection, then I'd say it's safe

The simplest way to do this is to go to VirusTotal, upload the file and way a few minutes (depenging on how many requests are at the moment). You'll get an answer from over 30 different AV products.

Cris.

C-1000

Thank you Cris. Do I need a special uploading tool to do that?

alexcrist

No, you don't need anything. Just go to that webpage, press Browse, search for the file and press Send file. In a few moments you'll see a page that indicates you the scanning status. It will show you the results as soon as they are ready.

Cris.