How did (Windows) PC Health Check (KB5005463) get on my laptop?

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I am Window 10/Pro and I am on 21H1. I have TRV set to Windows 10, 21H1.

I just noticed today that Windows PC Health Check is listed in Apps & Features as installed on Oct 18, 2021 on my 6th generation i7-6500U machine, not on the list of compatible devices for Windows 11.

Apparently, this app is on my device, but I’ve never seen it initiate.

I understand that this particular update is KB5005463. I am baffled as to how this got installed without my knowledge. First off, I have GP=2 (notify download/install), so I should have seen it on the WU screen with a ‘Download’ button. I never saw it there. Furthermore, I’ve checked WU Update History and it is not listed there – not under Quality Updates, not under Definition Updates (of course), and not under Other Updates (as shown in the Oct 26 Bleeping Computer screenshots. It is not listed in Installed Updates, either. The date of Oct 18 does not jibe with the dates on which I unhid Patch Tuesday patches and installed them (Oct patch KB5006670 installed on Nov 1; Sept patch KB5005565 installed on Oct 4; I haven’t installed November patch KB5007186 yet –it is still hidden.)

So, how did this get installed? (I know that I can uninstall it, but I thought I had taken all precautions to not ever have it appear in the first place).

[This is in contrast to my 8th generation i7-8565U machine, which is on the list of compatible devices for Windows 11. KB5005463 DID appear in the WU queue, but I hid it before it appeared on the WU screen and so this App has never gotten on THIS machine.]

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Fred

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If, like many of us, you downloaded it from the Microsoft site back in June when Win 11 was announced, that would explain its presence.

I downloaded it on our 2020 laptops to be told that they were Win 11-ready. KB5005463 was only presented on my 2011-era laptop with the 2021-11 updates, as I hadn’t downloaded the app to the 10-year-old machine.

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I did download it back in June and ran it. It’s currently listed in Apps and I have an active button to click to uninstall it. The odd thing is that if I try to run it, I can’t. I finally used Agent Ransack to tell me what is going on. It searched (much faster than Windows Search) and it says there are NO files for it on my computer.

So, why is it listed in Apps if it is NOT on the computer?

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Mele20 wrote:

It’s currently listed in Apps

It is automatically updated in the background.

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Even if you have Windows Update disabled via Win Aero Tweaker?

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Well, now I’ve learned something new.

Yesterday, having read in AskWoody that this App (listed as Windows PC Health Check) in Apps & features is listed as PC Health Check in the Start Menu (i,e. no “Windows” in the name), I checked the Start Menu (left column) and it was there under the P’s.

Knowing that clicking there would start it, I instead typed ‘PC Health Check’ in the lower-left search box. It appeared in the Flyout (which is now in dark mode, although I have light mode elsewhere). In the past when I have clicked on an App that is listed in the Flyout, I would get another screen that would show the App in a center panel, below which would be some choices – one was ‘Open file location‘, if I recall.

The point here is that one could click on the App in the Flyout, and there would be another screen that would give you options for what you could do next.

NOW … an App for which one searches will come up in the Flyout and if you click on it, it runs!! NOW, you have to right-click on it to see the other options.

So, when I saw PC Health Check on the new (dark mode) Flyout, I expected that I would see choices, such as ‘File location’, when I clicked (i.e., not right-clicked) on it. But, instead, dialog boxes started up, indicating that the App was installing!!! In other words, it didn’t run to check for Windows 11 Compatibility … instead it installed so that among other things, it could check for this!! So, evidently, even though Windows PC Health Check was listed in Apps & features, when I first saw it there, it wasn’t REALLY installed.

When it finished installing, this screen came up:

I didn’t click on the ‘Check now’ button, because I already know that this 6th generation laptop is not compatible with Windows 11. And I wasn’t keen on clicking on any of the other options. So, now that it had REALLY installed, I uninstalled it via Apps & features.

I have to say that the combination of a) listing Windows PC Health Check in Apps & features, when it wasn’t really installed, AND b) implementing the new Flyout whereby you no longer see up front the options associated with an App, unless you right-click (I might have seen ‘Install’ and passed on it, had I done that) led to installing the D** thing when I didn’t want to do that.

Microsoft is going to have its way, one way or another.

And there’s a sequel to this: Today, after I uninstalled it yesterday, KB5005463 was in the WU queue. So, apparently, uninstalling it just makes it want to come back. I hid it and will count on its remaining hidden, unless Microsoft figures out how to keep insisting on having its way.

It might just do that, since I hear PC Health Check keeps changing/updating and if so, each new edition might remove the old one from wushowhide (does that generally happen — i.e, once a KB file is no longer good, it disappears from wushowhide?)

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were you able to add this registry key after trying to uninstall the PC Health check app, WCHS?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PCHC]
“PreviousUninstall”=dword:00000001

open Registry editor (regedit.exe) and check if you have that “PCHC” previousuninstall reg key.

Once I had that “PreviousUninstall” reg key set on my dad’s Toshiba laptop running Win10 21H1 AND the PC Health check KB5005463 app was removed, the PC Health check app was never offered again thru WU and it never came back

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Fred

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I am just a novice and never monkey with Registry because I’m afraid I wouldn’t know what I would be doing.

Since I am Win10/Pro, I use the GP editor for whatever it can do that I need.

I’ll just have to deal with it the old-fashioned way, i.e., hiding it whenever it appears.

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There’s already a Health Check thing in Win 10, Windows Security>Device Performance and Health along with some other similar utilities in Maintenance, Drive Integrity, etc.

What you’re seeing is the Win 11 readiness assessment that was included with some recent updates.  Plenty of info on removal above.

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Thanks for pointing that out. It’s called “Health Report” there. So, PC Health Check (KB5005463) is pretty much useless (or redundant), especially if you already know that your machine is not compatible for Win11 (say with WhyNotWin11) and you have no interest in managing OneDrive or in Checking for Updates or in signing into your account, if you have one.

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