# Windows 10 question -- Is this a sign of Malware?



## Haldur (Apr 28, 2012)

Something odd has started happening only in the past 2 days. I'll get this pop-up screen when looking at photos stored on my own PC -- it's a dialog box that says "Please reenter your Password" followed by "We need to verify your Microsoft Account". I can close the window without entering anything, without any consequence, it seems. But it only happens when I'm looking at a photo. The photo browsing software itself came with my (HP) PC and I'm not sure if it's a standard part of Windows 10 or what. I don't know if what's happening is a sign of malware, or if this is a normal function of Windows 10. Should I be concerned?


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## lunarlander (Sep 22, 2007)

What is that photo browsing program called? You can google it to see if it is made by MS or HP. 

Normally, I wouldn't expect a password screen to pop up if the program does not display a shield in the icon. That is MS's way of telling you that a program needs authentication. And it doesn't sound reasonable that a photo browsing application needs passwords. However, that program may have a feature which ties in to an online service, like maybe online storage, so it may need credentials. You have to google that to find out.


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## dvk01 (Dec 14, 2002)

That is not likely to be malware
What happens is that W10 will by default store all photos on OneDrive ( if you use a Microsoft account to log on to windows) and sync them to make sure the OneDrive versions & the copies on the computer match up
Frequently the OneDrive sync doesn't work as well as it should and it only syncs when you open the photo folder on your PC
It can be quite frequently caused by DNS errors when your ISP DNS server hasn't got all the OneDrive IP numbers in its database
It can also be due to windows updates that have been automatically applied
Make sure you reboot the computer completely. Not shut down & start up
Select restart on the start menu


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## dvk01 (Dec 14, 2002)

If you close the window without entering any details all that happens is that Windows will ignore any photos on OneDrive and only display those on the computer itself.


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