Unknown app preventing restart

Copper Contributor
Today I tried to restart and update my laptop but there was an app called "cptmsg" preventing it from restarting. I tried googling what it is but nothing seems to explain what this is

I could also add that I wanted to restart my laptop because my WiFi suddenly stopped working on my laptop and my chrome tabs mentioned something about the a firewall. I'm not sure if this info is relevant or not. Once I restarted my WiFi started to work again.

What exactly is the app and what does it do? Is it something harmful to my laptop
18 Replies
Hi,
can you please mention which version/build of Windows 10 you are using?
thanks
Is it called OS build under windows specification? If so it's 19041.866 and the version is 2004
Yes, it's exactly that, thank you
can you please use Windows update to check for update and install the latest version which should be 20H2?
Oh ok I'm going to do that, thank you. Is there anything else I should do after and what exactly is cptmsg?

Hello,
I am still not sure what the app "cptmsg" is and if it's something harmful. Any info on this would be helpful as I can't find any info on it still.
Thank you!
Before shutdown your device, open task manager and check if you see any application with this name there? If yes, then right click on it and Open file location and from there you could get some clue about what is it.

Ive checked all the tabs in the task manager and I can't seem to find anything named that

I could also add that I I wanted to restart my laptop because my WiFi suddenly stopped working on my laptop and my chrome tabs mentioned something about the a firewall. I'm not sure if this info is relevant or not

Hi,
if you really wanna find out and what it is doing (this is advanced), you have to use Process Hacker
https://github.com/processhacker/processhacker/releases/download/v2.39/processhacker-2.39-setup.exe

https://processhacker.sourceforge.io/downloads.php

but if your Windows Defender is up to date and you run a full computer scan and it detects nothing harmful, then be sure it's not bad.

@Dl4085 


@Dl4085 wrote:

Ive checked all the tabs in the task manager and I can't seem to find anything named that

I could also add that I I wanted to restart my laptop because my WiFi suddenly stopped working on my laptop and my chrome tabs mentioned something about the a firewall. I'm not sure if this info is relevant or not


are you using any 3rd party antivirus?

I currently have Malwarebytes downloaded for half a year now and use it occasionally
Oh I see, the application disappeared after restarting so I think it's gone and I'm not able to check it anymore
If you observed the same behavior , then report it through the Feedback Hub app.

@Dl4085 


@Dl4085 wrote:
Oh I see, the application disappeared after restarting so I think it's gone and I'm not able to check it anymore

next time it happens you can use process hacker to get info about it, a lot more than what task manager can offer.

 

also that firewall message you mentioned in Chrome, I think it's just Chrome not having access to your internet at that time due to your WiFi issue so it thought a firewall was blocking it, a generic message.

Alright thank you so much for your help, I'll make sure to use that next time, so in the end it isn't something that should be concerning?

Ah ok that's understandable, I just found the series of events kinda of odd. I logged in my computer had no WiFi, my VPN app logged me out for no reason and then some random app I had no knowledge about appeared and prevent restart...
You're very welcome,
Yes nothing to be worried about, it was most likely a 3rd party program preventing restart because it was still running, if it was a malware your AV or Defender would detect it
Hello! I know you basically solved the main issue. But it seems like something triggered my laptop not being able to access network because of the firewall again. I've changed nothing in the settings of my laptop and my AV both times this occurred. It will fix itself once I restart, is there a way to stop this from happening. The WiFi would be fine on my all devices except my laptop. Would you be able to help me with this?
Hi,
does your VPN app have some kind of kill switch? when it's not connected to VPN servers, it blocks Internet access?

It does but I don't have it turned on