What is NVIDIA ’UpdatusUser’?

Answer ID 3067   |    Published 11/22/2011 04:02 PM   |    Updated 11/22/2011 04:02 PM

What is NVIDIA 'UpdatusUser'?

This article describes the purpose and security of the UpdatusUser account created on Optimus notebooks as well as by the NVIDIA Update software.

NVIDIA Update

NVIDIA Update is an optional software component that can be installed on systems with GeForce or ION GPUs as well as Optimus notebooks during driver installation. Once installed, NVIDIA Update scans the hardware and current driver version to determine the appropriate driver for the installed NVIDIA GPUs. Based on this information, NVIDIA Update notifies the user when a new driver is available and directs the user to the driver on www.nvidia.com.  NVIDIA Update also automatically updates application profiles and SLI profiles to ensure proper functioning of new applications, or newer versions of older applications.

Please visit : http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia-update.html  for more information about NVIDIA Update.

Purpose of the 'UpdatusUser' Account

Beginning with driver version 188.97 for Optimus notebooks, the driver creates a special Windows user account for security purposes, named UpdatusUser.1 This account is a dedicated and write-restricted user account that runs a service for updating Optimus profiles through the NVIDIA server. The service cannot be run without this account. On Optimus notebooks, this account is created regardless of whether NVIDIA Update is installed. When NVIDIA Update is installed, the additional driver update, application profile and SLI profile update capabilities become available.

Beginning with Release 270 drivers for desktops, when NVIDIA Update is installed, the software creates the UpdatusUser account. This account runs the NVIDIA Update service for updating application profiles through the NVIDIA server. Again, the service cannot be run without this account.

NVIDIA has taken every precaution to make the NVIDIA driver implementation of UpdatusUser as secure as possible. This implementation has been audited by Veracode (www.veracode.com) -a third party security auditor- and has been given a rating of "Best". NVIDIA Update-with the UpdatusUser account- is considered a low security risk implementation.

Removing the UpdatusUser Account

To  remove the UpdatusUser account from desktop PCs, you must remove the NVIDIA Update software (and all its functionality) from your PC.  To remove NVIDIA Update software, either:
•     Uninstall the NVIDIA Update software using Windows Programs and Features, or
•     Reinstall the NVIDIA driver but do not install (deselect) the NVIDIA Update software

To remove the UpdatusUser account from Optimus notebooks, you must uninstall the entire NVIDIA graphics driver from the notebook. It is not possible to remove the UpdatusUser account without uninstalling the driver.

1. NVIDIA has ensured that this user name does not appear on the Windows welcome logon screen. However, the Windows recovery console uses different logic to display available user accounts, and so the name appears under the System Recovery options.

via nvidia.custhelp.com

just in case u thought u were being spied on by big brother lol