Users Guide

Remove potentially unwanted programs
About this task
Potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) are programs that are installed silently on the system while installing an application. PUPs include
spyware, adware and so on which may reduce the system performance or display unwanted advertisements.
SupportAssist detects PUPs present on the system during a manually initiated or automated virus and malware scan. If PUPs are
detected, the Remove Viruses & Malware tile icon is displayed in red color and the number of PUPs that were detected are displayed on
the tile. You can review and remove these PUPs.
NOTE: If PUPs are detected during an automated scan, an appropriate notification is displayed. For information on the
types of notifications that are displayed by SupportAssist, see Notifications.
Steps
1. Open SupportAssist.
2. On the Remove Viruses & Malware tile, click View.
The details of the PUPs are displayed.
NOTE: By default, all the PUPs are selected. You can review and clear the PUPs that you do not want to remove from
the system.
3. If necessary, click the Click here for more details link to view more information about a PUP.
4. Click Remove and click Confirm.
The selected PUPs are removed from the system.
5. Click OK.
Results
The number of PUPs that were removed is displayed on the Home page and the History page.
Run all system scans and optimizations
About this task
Run multiple scans one by one to check available driver updates, detect hardware issues, and identify optimizations required on your
system. After one scan is complete, the next scan is initiated. View details of all the scans and optimizations on the History page.
Steps
Perform one of the following:
• Open SupportAssist and click Start Now.
•
Open SupportAssist, click , and then click Run All.
CAUTION:
If you cancel the optimization while it is in progress, the changes that were applied are not reversed.
After the scan is complete, one of the following is displayed:
• If no issue is detected and there are no updates, an appropriate message is displayed on each tile. The amount of hard drive space that
is recovered, and the number of viruses or malware that are removed are displayed on the Home page and the History page.
• If driver updates are detected during the scan, the update type and the number of updates are displayed on the Get Drivers &
Downloads tile. For instructions to install driver updates, see Install driver updates.
• If a hardware issue is detected which requires creating a support request, a support request is automatically created and the issue
summary page is displayed. A notification is also sent to your IT administrator.
• If an issue is detected which does not require creating a support request, the issue title is displayed above the tiles, a notification is
displayed on the
Scan Hardware tile, and the optimization tiles are disabled. Click Skip to enable the optimization tiles.
• If potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) are detected, a notification is displayed on the Remove Viruses & Malware tile. For
instructions to remove PUPs, see Remove potentially unwanted programs.
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Optimizing your system