Windows 10: What is Driver Toaster, and why is it giving this error message?

I updated to FCU 1709 a few days ago, and now I periodically get this popup error:



The picture, above, has poor contrast.
The title bar reads:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\DriverToaster_1.5.0.0_x86__rqs2nt378nwsp\DriverToaster.exe

The body of the popup reads:
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file.
You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.

What is Driver Toaster?
Why does it give this error?

:)

 

What is this WaasMedic? and Why it required to connect internet and make changes on MY COMPUTER?

We did not specifically say that WassMedic is a third-party application.
WaasMedic is a Win64 executable application file that was developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems 7, 8 and 10. It is used to repair damaged Windows Updates. Declining or disabling it has a high chance of
causing system failure, so we do not recommend it. You can decline updates and install only the stable ones by deferring Windows 10 Updates. To do so, follow the steps on this

link. For more information regarding Windows 10 branch release, refer to this

article.

Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

 

What is this WaasMedic? and Why it required to connect internet and make changes on MY COMPUTER?

Searching the internet is a skill worth developing it takes practice to craft the right search term and time to develop a discerning eye.

For some of us who have the necessary skills it doesn't need developing or practice

AND your answer sheds no light on the original question - what does this actually do, why is it trying to communicate to some out of country address and why should I keep it?

The last MS update which took hours when I did not want it has installed all kinds of snooping software. Luckily I have the skills to intercept and block them. Seems MS wants to have a system that does the thinking for us while reporting what we do.

Looks like 1984 is just 30 years late

 

I am pretty sure it is a legitimate part of the Dell Support Assistant. Seen it on my Dell Laptop a few months ago, but my memory being bad I forget the circumstance. Check out the Dell Support Forums maybe?
I recall having to update the Dell SupportAssist application

 

I see that Windows Apps Folder was added to my ASUS Notebook w/Intel CPU on 1/6/2018 [haven't checked my other computers yet] but it is marked as Read Only and Hidden, won't allow access. It is an empty Folder.

EDIT: I just checked my ASUS Desktop w/Home and my Custom Desktop w/Pro, both have AMD CPUs and both now have that empty Folder.

 

It seems that DriverToaster is part of Dell Support Assistant.

Like you, I don't have access to that DriverToaster folder ... nor to the WindowsApps folder above it ... at least not when using Windows Explorer. Maybe that's the symptom referenced in that popup error. That program cannot access the DriverToaster folder any better than I can.

Anyway, I can access those folders from a bash shell. So I tried to use icacls to give myself permissions ... but these folders are "hard-locked". I cannot change permissions.

Anyway, it seems there have been lots of problems with Dell Support Assistant ever since people got FCU some months ago. I only got FCU a few days ago so I'm late to the party.

A search of DriverToaster on dell.com turned up nothing. So I don't know whether there's an updated version available.

Anyway ... when I start Dell Support Assistant, the tile for Drivers is grayed out ... and then comes that error/popup, which I dismiss. Then the Driver tile becomes active. So I clicked on Drivers it and I found (and installed) a Dell drive management update. (Whoopee!)

There's also a BIOS update waiting for me. I'm guessing that's part of the Meltdown/Spectre fixer-upper? I'll get to that later.

But still nothing about that popup/error.

 

Update: I opened up the ACL permissions on the folder where this program resides.
So now (I guess) the program has permission to run.
But now I get a different pop-up error message. This one complains something about wrong parameters being used ....


It tries to run automatically every morning somewhere around 9:00 or 9:30 AM, and it pops up that "wrong parameters" error every time.
I don't know what is the cause.




I can run DriverToaster directly from its Start Menu shortcut ... and I get that same message ...






But in this case the error message goes away when I click OK ... and the Dell "Support Assist" application is there.



The app works fine this way.
I can click on the Drivers/Downloads ... and that works.
I got the latest BIOS update there (probably the Spectre fixer-upper).

It's just that the 9 AM pop-up error keeps appearing every day, and I don't know why.

 

You mean C:\Program Files\WindowsApps ? It is not empty, you just aren't allowed to see inside it.

This is the folder that contains all your installed Windows Apps, like Photos, Groove Music, News, Weather etc. Permissions are highly restricted to protect these apps from tampering. The owner is TrustedInstaller and the only permissions Users have are to Read and Execute the files. Even signed in as an administrator you'll be running File Explorer as a standard user - that's why it says the size is zero, it doesn't have permission to see the files!

The Administrators group has List permission. From a Command Prompt (Admin) you can at least list the files. If you CD into WindowsApps and type DIR /S you'll list all the files it contains. Mine contains about 2GB...

Code: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps> DIR /S ... ... Total Files Listed: 12936 File(s) 2,100,641,768 bytes 4824 Dir(s) 172,493,045,760 bytes free C:\Program Files\WindowsApps>[/quote]