Apparently Windows installed Spotify app without my permission

[Al_V96]

I spotted Spotify mysteriously running upon boot up, yet I never installed it-- ever.

One theory: Sometimes if there are Windows updates, updates to apps can squeeze through. And maybe I always had the app installed and somehow a setting in it changed so that it opens during boot up? That's a stretch, and I'm very particular about what runs during boot up. I didn't see any recent system updates, at least none that I could see.

Anyway, I shut down my PC 8 hours ago and when I booted it up today, suddenly the Spotify app is open as soon as Desktop loads. I've never used Spotify, especially not on this PC. The only way for the app to get on my PC would have been for me to install it or for someone else (Microsoft?) to.

I've never seen anything like this. Does Windows do this kind of stuff? I mean, I could be capped on harddrive space, and it just installs something from the Windows Store without my permission? What the?

[Al_V96]

Hey folks!

We have been made aware of an issue where some users engaging with the Game Bar receive unprompted launches of Spotify on their PCs running Windows 10 and Windows 11.
A fix has been issued and is expected to reach all of you in the coming days. In the meantime, you can always remove any app from the startup list of apps in the Settings on Windows 🙂
Cheers!

[Slipoch]

I just had this happen to a work computer, spoftify as a desktop program has never been installed on this system and this is a development system.

As a result of this behaviour I will be uninstalling even the legit versions of spotify from every system I touch (MacOS and Windows).

[Vasil]

Hi folks!

Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
The Spotify app is sometimes included with all pre-installed software that comes with Windows.
It is possible that an update has put the program in you Start-up list so now it auto-starts whenever you boot up your PC.

This should be easy to mend, as programs can always be excluded from your Start-up list of apps 🙂
We're here for you if any questions arise.
Thanks!

@Slipoch @Al_V96

[AnnoyedGuy]

Not cool at all. Just had this happen to me as well. I don't use Spotify and I don't want it on my computer. It seems there's no easy way to uninstall it either, which makes it even more troubling.

[radialmonster]

Seen this on numerous computers over the last coouple of weeks.  Spotify gets installed, and opens on startup. even on brand new windows installs.  Here's some links to report it:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/filesubmission

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20090602171902EN

https://support.malwarebytes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038522814-Submit-a-phishing-link-malicious-web...

[Vasil]

Hey folks!

We have been made aware of an issue where some users engaging with the Game Bar receive unprompted launches of Spotify on their PCs running Windows 10 and Windows 11.
A fix has been issued and is expected to reach all of you in the coming days. In the meantime, you can always remove any app from the startup list of apps in the Settings on Windows 🙂
Cheers!

[radialmonster]

Nothing to do with game bar.  I've seen this on newly formatted computers that sat on a shelf for a few weeks.  we plug them up to update them, or prepare for a customer and after some updates then spotify starts launching on startup.  

[Tori1157]

I stopped using Spotify for a reason, having it randomly install and launch on boot-up is not okay.

Because of this, I will never use this app again and steer everyone I know away from it.

[MandyDroid]

This is really bad. I actually like Spotify but now I have to consider it SPAMware. No software from a third party should auto install to a computer. I run productions machines I don't need the extra work of removing software I did not approve. 

[Iselamar]

Hi. I work in a laboratory and we have a computer with OMNIC software installed associated to a FT-IR spectrometer . OMNIC software generates .SPA files. I have not been installed Spotify-ever, however many times Spotify files have shown up "deleted" in the audit trail report. This is a big issue for us because a Spotify app that was never installed ????  is probably "reading" a SPA file from OMNIC and maybe we may be missing some information from spectrums collected with OMNIC software. We have searched for the Spotify app on the hard drive but we couldn't detected it. The Pc is connected to the internet and to an internal network. It could be possible that the Pc takes the Spotify software from the network or from internet to read OMNIC files instead of preferring to use OMNIC software that is installed? Thanks

[Iselamar]

What should we do to solve it?
@Slipoch @Al_V96