Question:

I encountered an issue at windows startup, windows run slowly, I check windows process via Task manager, I found a process named wuaudt.exe automatically, when this process is running, windows goes into poor performance, I googled around, but I was confused, is it a legitimate file or is it some harmful virus?

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Answer:

The file wuauclt.exe is legitimate, this file is related to windows Automatic Updates, you can run msconfig and then select the Services tab to disable Automatic Updates.

We have found 32 files with file name wuaudt.exe NOT wuauclt.exe, all of them was detected as harmful files, if you found wuaudt.exe is running, that means the windows has malware resident. We never found a legitimate Windows XP file named wuaudt.exe.

Warning:

The wuaudt.exe was infected by these virus or Trojan:

Gene.wuau/worm

Worm.wuau-Generater2012

Psw:Win32/64.wuau

We recommend you first try doing a scan with free avast anti-virus, and then run wise pc doctor to fix the related error of wuaudt.exe virus.

More details of Trojan Removal Instructions: How to get rid of wuaudt.exe virus, Trojan or malwares