Why is the message "this app can't run on this PC" appearing at startup?

[Windows Central Question]

I've searched for days for the answer to this question, and haven't gotten very far.

Here's exactly what happens: I turn on my computer. Get to the lockscreen, tuck that away, enter my password so I can get to the desktop. Right when the desktop starts to appear, I get the above message.

When I searched this message online, all I found were various references to programs and apps. But this message doesn't appear when I run a program or app -- it just appears when my computer starts up.

I've looked in the "Startup" tab of Task Manager to see if there are any apps that shouldn't be there; I've also looked in Programs and Features to see if I've installed any programs recently that might be causing a problem. This has been happening for the past, oh, 3 or 4 days now. And honestly, the only installation/update I can see is a Windows 10 update.

I was wondering if anyone else who's recently had a Windows 10 update is having this issue as well? And if not (or even if so), can anyone help me figure out what could be causing this problem?

I admit this is not a major problem, or at least it doesn't appear to be. But it is very annoying, and I don't like having rogue dialog boxes popping up on my screen without having any idea what the issue is!

Thanks so much for any help you can provide.

Nicole

 

[rhapdog]

When you upgraded, you may have had a program left over from your previous OS that was set to auto-start. Programs like Anti-Virus or Firewalls will do this, and other programs.

Many Anti-virus programs from before Windows 10 are incompatible, and won't be able to run, as are many firewalls. Check to see if you have something like that installed. It's most likely the culprit.

 

[Nic_Leigh]

Hi there! I'm the one who posted this question. Thanks so much for your reply.

I do have Avast, and I ran what I thought was a compatibility troubleshooter to fix the problem. I restarted my computer, and I still got the same message popping up.

So operating on the assumption that the problem is with Avast, any suggestions on how I can fix it? Do I just need to uninstall Avast and find another antivirus program? Or is there another option?

Thanks again for your help!

Nicole

 

[jmshub]

You can try disabling Avast and restart your PC to see for sure if that is the culprit. If so, yes, you can uninstall Avast. Windows 10, like Windows 8 before it, has Windows Defender antivirus built in. It is your choice, but I like Defender and trust it as my only antivirus software.

 

[Nic_Leigh]

Well, I decided to try uninstalling Avast. Unfortunately, I'm still getting that message on startup. (At least Windows Defender is running now... when I first restarted my computer I couldn't get it to run, and I was panicking a little!)

So anyway, any other ideas?

 

[jmshub]

Try disabling anything in the startup tab of task manager, one at a time and restarting your PC. When Windows comes up without the error message, you've found the culprit.

 

[rhapdog]

Nic_Leah, jmshub is giving some mighty good advice there. Just be sure it's like he says, "One at a time." That means disable one, restart, if it still comes up, then re-enable that one and disable the next, restart and so on. It's a real pain, but it's the only way to narrow it down with any certainty.

Best of luck, and let us know how that turns out.

 

[Nic_Leigh]

Well, it was a great suggestion that made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, it ultimately didn't help. I disabled every start-up process one at a time and restarted, but no matter which one I disabled, I still got that confounded message.

I have a bad feeling that the only way I could wipe this out is to wipe out my computer and reinstall everything. Which I would really rather not do, because I have Microsoft Office 2013 on this laptop and I don't know how it got there (this laptop used to belong to my husband, he doesn't remember how it got there either, lol).

Ah well. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'm all ears, but otherwise I guess I'll just chalk this up to an annoyance I'll have to live with. At least that's all it seems to be is an annoyance!

Thanks for trying, guys!

 

[jmshub]

Sorry we didn't figure it out yet, Nic. If you launch task manager while that error message is up, the task manager may show what is calling the error message.

 

[Nic_Leigh]

Oh, now there's a thought. I'll give that a try the next time I start up. Thanks!

 

[elindalyne]

You can also check in the Event Log. Usually there will be an entry if windows prevents a task from launching at startup.