Why Does Taskeng.exe Keep Popping Up? How To Fix It

You may have seen a command prompt-like window suddenly popping up on the screen while you perform your routine work. One such prompt can appear with the name taskeng.exe.

This is the process known as Task Scheduler Engine, which functions to perform system tasks at a specified time. These tasks can be regular program updates, auto-start of applications, system program launcher, etc. The appearance of taskeng.exe can mean that some tasks are trying to run, failing, or restarting continuously.

But, it is not limited to that, most of the malware is also disguised as taskeng.exe prompt, and they run in the background, harming your system. So, if it keeps popping up on your screen, then it may be time you give attention to your PC.

Table of Contents

Why Does Taskeng.exe Keep Popping Up?

Here are a few reasons why the taskeng.exe command prompt keeps coming up on your screen.

Failure of scheduled tasks
Scheduled tasks unable to gather information from their respective source
Malware infection
Pending tasks in the task scheduler

Fixes to Solve the Issue of Taskeng.exe Popping Up

Whether it is a windows process, or malware trying to damage your system, the frequent appearance of a random taskeng.exe window is definitely annoying. However, the fixes for it are quite easy, and you can bring your PC back to normal in no time.

So, let’s move on to fixing it immediately.

Identify and Close Failing or Suspicious Tasks

As we have mentioned earlier, the taskeng.exe program runs to update or get information for scheduled tasks. During the process, if it finds any tasks that are failing or frequently running in the background, then the taskeng.exe window will appear.

Thus, you should look for any such tasks and end them through the ways mentioned below.

Look For Any Failing or Pending Tasks

When some tasks fail to operate, the task scheduler tries to restart it frequently, causing the window to pop up every time. So, you should look if any tasks have been at fault during that time or are pending and disable them.

Let’s see the way to do it.

Press Windows + ‘R’ and type taskschd.msc to open Task Scheduler.
On the right panel, under the Actions menu, find View and click on Show Hidden Tasks.
Look for any tasks that ran or are about to run during the 24 hours period under Task Status.
If you find any tasks that are failing or restarting frequently, match their time stamp with the time when the taskeng.exe window popped up.
Right-click on such tasks, if found any, and click on the End option at the right panel.

See if the window appears again.

End Any Suspicious Tasks

Every time, several tasks run automatically on your PC, making it difficult to pinpoint the one that’s faulty or suspicious.

However, you can use Windows’s own Autoruns program that keeps track of automatically starting programs to look for such suspicious programs. And you can disable or stop them.

Download Autoruns for Windows by Sysinternals and unzip the compressed file.
Run the Autoruns application and click Agree.
Click on Scheduled tasks.
If you find any tasks that have a non-system publisher or seem risky, uncheck them.

Reboot your PC and observe if the window still pops up.

Perform a Full Virus Scan

It is highly likely that taskeng.exe appearing on your system is malware. Whenever you browse the internet and click some fishy links, install such extensions, or programs, they may secretly inject malware into your PC.

This virus runs in the background and triggers some tasks to run frequently. Sometimes, it can even disguise itself as a taskeng.exe window. As a result, the taskeng.exe window pops up every time.

As the virus looks identical to the actual Windows program, it can be difficult to determine if the popup is caused by a virus. However, one common way to identify it is the error message that comes with the taskeng.exe window. You may find the error message saying Windows cannot find some programs, in case of the virus, which is not seen in normal taskeng.exe operation.

If such an error message appears, you will have to perform a full virus scan of your system using reliable antivirus software or the Windows defender program to remove the malware.

Press Windows + ‘R’ and type ms-settings:windowsdefender to run Windows Security.
Go to Virus & threat protection and choose Scan options.
Check the Full Scan option and click Scan now.

Windows defender will move on to identify the virus and remove them. But if the Windows defender fails to remove the malware, you can use Microsoft Safety Scanner along with your antivirus program.

But sometimes, the virus can hide itself from the antivirus, and you may not able to detect it. In such a case, you should look for the location of the running taskeng.exe program and identify if it is a virus or a Windows file.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
Go to the Processes tab.
Look for taskeng.exe.
Right-click on it and select Open file location.
If you find the program inside the System32 folder, then it is the Windows program. Any locations other than this indicate that it is a virus.
End the task and delete the program from the folder.

Restart your PC to see if the window stops appearing now.

Disable Problematic Tasks

There are some tasks run by Microsoft and other third-party programs to improve your experience while using their applications. Such tasks are scheduled to update feeds from the internet, look for security updates, etc.

But, if these programs fail to obtain the required information, then the taskeng.exe window can appear time and again on your PC. So, you can try disabling a few of the most frequent tasks that are known to cause this issue.

Disable Microsoft User Feed Synchronization

Microsoft User Feed Synchronization helps you obtain the latest news and updates from the websites to which you are subscribed. The task scheduler runs this task to check for such information and update it regularly when you subscribe to any feed.

If the feed is at fault, then the User Feed Synchronization runs frequently, trying to obtain the info. As a result, the taskeng.exe window continuously pops up.

You can disable this task after checking if it is causing the issue.

Press Windows + ‘R’ and type taskschd.msc to open Task Scheduler.
Right-click on the Task Scheduler Library menu on the left panel.
Click on View and select Show Hidden Tasks.
In the list of tasks found in the central panel, look for User Feed Synchronization.
Select it and click on History.
If you find any error reports or see that it is frequently running, then click on Disable.

Observe if the issue has gone now.

Disable GoogleUpdateTaskmachineUA

GoogleUpdateTaskmachineUA is another such program that is known to cause this issue. This task operates to find any updates for the Google software that you have installed on your system. Disabling it should fix the issue as well.

Open Task Scheduler.
Click on Task Scheduler Library on the left panel.
Find GoogleUpdateTaskmachineUA in the list and disable it.

The problem should be solved now.

Disable OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration

OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration is yet another process that annoys you with the taskeng.exe pop-up. So, disabling it will fix the issue for most of you.