Solved Why is Cygwin on my personal Dell laptop

I had a popup notification saying that a problem needs to be solved with Cygwin.

Cygwin seems to useful for developers - I only use my laptop for the most simple of uses.

I have found that it is difficult to uninstall.

One question I have, is is there a security risk with Cygwin?

Can I remove the main part of Cygwin using the simplest way, or is it best to keep it and keep it updated?

Why has Dell put this program (which can not be easily uninstalled) on my laptop and looks so complicated?

I AM ONLY A BASIC USER!

Thanks

I wouldn't remove it until you know why it is there. If it is just to support a couple of unix/linux type utilities, most can be found as stand alone exe files, such as on GnuWin. If it comes preinstalled I would ask on Dell forum. Otherwise you probably installed a utility that requires it.

Something is using CygWin. Download Speccy from majorgeeks.com and post the Web URL that it gives after you run it. Then we can help you figure out why you have Cygwin installed. Actually having on the laptop is not going to harm anything. Mainly used for Linux Apps in Windows.

Refurbished?

Is this a new Dell computer, or a refurbished one?

dperecky said:

Is this a new Dell computer, or a refurbished one?

Click to expand...

I bought it brand new from Dell.
I only knew that I had Cygwin when I had the popup.
I have am no expert when it comes to computers.
I have installed 'speccy' but am not sure what I have to do next.

Autobahn said:

dperecky said:

Is this a new Dell computer, or a refurbished one?

Click to expand...

I bought it brand new from Dell.
I only knew that I had Cygwin when I had the popup.
I have am no expert when it comes to computers.
I have installed 'speccy' but am not sure what I have to do next.

Click to expand...

hello ,for speecy run the scan when it finished go to File ,click on publish snap shot, in the popup click yes, then click on copy to clipboard ,then paste it into your nest post here

I am not seeing Cygwin even installed.

I do have it, as I had the popup from 'action centre' saying there was a problem to solve.
When I double click my C Drive I can see it installed.

I have Cygwin64 and rhcygwin64 installed

Another problem:

I have installed rhcygwin64 (red hat cygwin 64) by mistake when updating Cygwin, when I already had Cygwin64 installed.

Can I leave it as it is or try to uninstall one of them (or even better, both of them if I don't need Cygwin), which I have read is difficult.

Any idea what program is using Cygwin?

Thanks

Autobahn said:

Another problem:

I have installed rhcygwin64 (red hat cygwin 64) by mistake when updating Cygwin, when I already had Cygwin64 installed.

Can I leave it as it is or try to uninstall one of them (or even better, both of them if I don't need Cygwin), which I have read is difficult.

Any idea what program is using Cygwin?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Uninstall it and see which program breaks. If you don't notice any change maybe nothing was using it.

Cygwin does not seem to have an 'uninstall' built into it.
I have read that it is difficult to completely uninstall.

Cygwin provides how to uninstall

Uninstalling Cygwin - Cygwin Wiki

It looks like it was downloaded as part of EAC (Exact Audio Copy).
I have unistalled EAC, reinstalled it but unticked the part that uses Cygwin

Autobahn said:

It looks like it was downloaded as part of EAC (Exact Audio Copy).
I have unistalled EAC, reinstalled it but unticked the part that uses Cygwin

Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for posting the resolution.