What is msa.exe?

msa.exe is usually located in the 'C:\WINDOWS\' folder.

If you have additional information about the file, please share it with the FreeFixer users by posting a comment at the bottom of this page.

Vendor and version information [?]

msa.exe does not have any version or vendor information.

Digital signatures [?]

msa.exe is not signed.

Hashes [?]

PropertyValue
MD5062734882258c8038071938c63c4513e
SHA256356bce952eec6f5aa89aa632f18735b65540724574d008a5d118271841138570

Error Messages

These are some of the error messages that can appear related to msa.exe:

msa.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

msa.exe - Application Error. The instruction at "0xXXXXXXXX" referenced memory at "0xXXXXXXXX". The memory could not be "read/written". Click on OK to terminate the program.

msa.exe has stopped working.

End Program - msa.exe. This program is not responding.

msa.exe is not a valid Win32 application.

msa.exe - Application Error. The application failed to initialize properly (0xXXXXXXXX). Click OK to terminate the application.

What will you do with msa.exe?

To help other users, please let us know what you will do with msa.exe:



What did other users do?

The poll result listed below shows what users chose to do with msa.exe. 90% have voted for removal. Based on votes from 166 users.

User vote results: There were 149 votes to remove and 17 votes to keep

NOTE: Please do not use this poll as the only source of input to determine what you will do with msa.exe.

Malware or legitimate?

If you feel that you need more information to determine if your should keep this file or remove it, please read this guide.

Please select the option that best describe your thoughts on the information provided on this web page


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Comments

Please share with the other users what you think about this file. What does this file do? Is it legitimate or something that your computer is better without? Do you know how it was installed on your system? Did you install it yourself or did it come bundled with some other software? Is it running smoothly or do you get some error message? Any information that will help to document this file is welcome. Thank you for your contributions.

I'm reading all new comments so don't hesitate to post a question about the file. If I don't have the answer perhaps another user can help you.

Roger Karlsson writes

3 thumbs

msa.exe does not have any version information nor a digital signature. It smells malware to me.

# 2 Jul 2009, 0:41

Roger Karlsson writes

4 thumbs

msa.exe is distributed by some faked movie sites. The faked sites are often dubbed "PornTube" or "PornTube v2" and looks like the popular YouTube.com movie site. The "PornTube" sites often claim that you have to install some new codec or the latest Flash player in order to watch the movies. If you installed their software file, you may get infected with msa.exe.

msb.exe is also installed in the same way:
http://www.freefixer.com/library/file/36533/

# 3 Jul 2009, 16:35

JBaumie writes

0 thumbs

Hi i got a problem with my MSA.EXE file is seems 2 over load my cpu usage because it just reopens like a millions of times and there is no way you can kill it. Should i delete the file or would it be save 2 keep it? And thanx if any 1 help me with this prob!

# 23 Oct 2009, 11:29

Roger Karlsson writes

-1 thumb

@JBaumie: msa.exe is malware. You can safely delete it.

# 24 Oct 2009, 2:35

Roger Karlsson writes

2 thumbs

msa.exe is still distributed from many "PornTube" sites. 4 additional files also appeared on my system: a.exe, b.exe, c.exe and msxml71.dll.

Seems like msa.exe does a good job escaping the anti-virus programs. I've ran it through the scanners at virus-total, and at the time of writing this variant of msa.exe is only detected by 3 of the 41 antivirus programs:

http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/62857625e8a8dc1314c39aaf7617559816abd3ce8da42752aacf329f0223b105-1258792192

# 21 Nov 2009, 0:37

Moahsin writes

0 thumbs

My ZoneAlarm 9 internet Security Suite found 'msa.exe' on the basic scan within 2minutes of the scan in the 'start up items'.. I didn’t even know I had it on my computer since the last 8 days!.. ZA gave me a choice and one of them was 'delete on reboot'..Selected this and now I don’t have it anymore! I have not had a virus for 3 years and I don’t know where this could have come from as ZA is the best and 99% of the time it picks up viruses before they can do any damage. The strange thing is that I haven’t had any pop ups or any problems or changes in behaviour from my computer and have had this on my computer since the last 8 days. I hope my personal details haven’t been compromised! :@

# 7 Jan 2010, 20:50

DR4IG writes

2 thumbs

Spybot Search & Destroy found the MSA.EXE, In fact it was TEATIMER that caught the process right off and offered to delete the asosiated files. In my case though, MSA.EXE was popping up IE popup ad/search windows every 15 minutes :P

I don't know if Spybot destroyed and fixed the problem, Am looking for an antimalware SPECIFICALLY catered to msa.exe to doublecheck but so far so good. :P

# 31 Jan 2010, 15:32

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