What is commsapps.exe?

commsapps.exe is part of Mail and Calendar and developed by Microsoft Corporation according to the commsapps.exe version information.

commsapps.exe's description is "Mail and Calendar"

commsapps.exe is usually located in the 'C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_16005.13110.41006.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\' folder.

None of the anti-virus scanners at VirusTotal reports anything malicious about commsapps.exe.

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 [?]

The following is the available information on commsapps.exe:

PropertyValue
Product nameMail and Calendar
Company nameMicrosoft Corporation
File descriptionMail and Calendar
Internal nameOutlookApp.dll
Original filenamecommscommon.dll
Legal copyright© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Product version16005.13110.41006.0

Here's a screenshot of the file properties when displayed by Windows Explorer:

Product nameMail and Calendar
Company nameMicrosoft Corporation
File descriptionMail and Calendar
Internal nameOutlookApp.dll
Original filenamecommscommon.dll
Legal copyright© Microsoft Corporation. All rights..
Product version16005.13110.41006.0

Digital signatures [?]

commsapps.exe is not signed.

VirusTotal report

None of the 69 anti-virus programs at VirusTotal detected the commsapps.exe file.

None of the 69 anti-virus programs detected the commsapps.exe file.

Sandbox Report

The following information was gathered by executing the file inside Cuckoo Sandbox.

Summary

ERROR: Failed to execute process.

Generic

[
    {
        "process_path": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\lsass.exe",
        "process_name": "lsass.exe",
        "pid": 476,
        "summary": {},
        "first_seen": 1596963185.3125,
        "ppid": 376
    }
]

Signatures

[
    {
        "markcount": 1,
        "families": [],
        "description": "This executable has a PDB path",
        "severity": 1,
        "marks": [
            {
                "category": "pdb_path",
                "ioc": "C:\\_work\\3\\s\\native-uwp\\app\\build\\x64\\Release-NoMail\\commsapps\\commsapps.pdb",
                "type": "ioc",
                "description": null
            }
        ],
        "references": [],
        "name": "has_pdb"
    }
]

Yara

The Yara rules did not detect anything in the file.

Network

{
    "tls": [],
    "udp": [
        {
            "src": "192.168.56.101",
            "dst": "224.0.0.252",
            "offset": 826,
            "time": 4.16358494758606,
            "dport": 5355,
            "sport": 53595
        },
        {
            "src": "192.168.56.101",
            "dst": "224.0.0.252",
            "offset": 1154,
            "time": 3.0473849773406982,
            "dport": 5355,
            "sport": 55314
        },
        {
            "src": "192.168.56.101",
            "dst": "239.255.255.250",
            "offset": 1482,
            "time": 4.181149005889893,
            "dport": 3702,
            "sport": 49152
        }
    ],
    "dns_servers": [],
    "http": [],
    "icmp": [],
    "smtp": [],
    "tcp": [],
    "smtp_ex": [],
    "mitm": [],
    "hosts": [],
    "pcap_sha256": "7f8fb160da409b5a78aba5407eea5655ca88a98106e0144bb3e10c54ea937bbf",
    "dns": [],
    "http_ex": [],
    "domains": [],
    "dead_hosts": [],
    "sorted_pcap_sha256": "d95c718db433427b2312079dc6d4d49bd0871b6902f7fb1089faff686e81a8bd",
    "irc": [],
    "https_ex": []
}

Hashes [?]

PropertyValue
MD539dd2262a6676900582280e62912387d
SHA256cf586e81cf4f53e918e5c0fcac971b4d6f73d89b20effd6eb9f59516f817003d

Error Messages

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

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

commsapps.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.

Mail and Calendar has stopped working.

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

commsapps.exe is not a valid Win32 application.

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

What will you do with commsapps.exe?

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



What did other users do?

The poll result listed below shows what users chose to do with commsapps.exe. 75% have voted for removal. Based on votes from 20 users.

User vote results: There were 15 votes to remove and 5 votes to keep

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


Free online surveys

And now some shameless self promotion ;)

A screenshot of FreeFixer's scan result.Hi, my name is Roger Karlsson. I've been running this website since 2006. I want to let you know about the FreeFixer program. FreeFixer is a freeware tool that analyzes your system and let you manually identify unwanted programs. Once you've identified some malware files, FreeFixer is pretty good at removing them. You can download FreeFixer here. It runs on Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008/2016/2019/Vista/7/8/8.1/10. Supports both 32- and 64-bit Windows.

If you have questions, feedback on FreeFixer or the freefixer.com website, need help analyzing FreeFixer's scan result or just want to say hello, please contact me. You can find my email address at the contact page.

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.

XyLoSe99 writes

0 thumbs

Cudos to you and your fine work. You are the only result from entering this file's sha256 hash. That's pretty spectacular in my opinion! I'm using VoodooShield, another incredible program that's new and I'm finding to be very good and very informative, and it told me through it's working that commsapps.exe is not signed and therefore has no way of verifying it's publisher or digital signature. Lookingh through the information you provided, it confirms this and I really wonder why this is so. Being part of the mail and calendar app and being relatively new (ala Win 10) I would think this would be standard practice at Microsoft to sign all their publically available files and especially those that are part of an operating system.

# 27 Aug 2020, 17:19

Roger Karlsson writes

0 thumbs

@XyLoSe99: Thank you very much for the feedback! I'm happy to hear that you find the information here useful.

From what I understand the whole application package is digitally signed. The package is unpacked while installing the app and it may contain unsigned files, such as commsapps.exe.

I checked my Windows 10 installation, and for example the Microsoft Store App (WinStore.App.exe) is not digitally signed.

I think this is a pretty bad decision since it makes the Windows Explorer less useful in determining the if a file is legit or not.

Now that I think of it, perhaps it's possible to figure out if the file is legit after it has been extracted from the app package. That would be a pretty good improvement for the FreeFixer tool. Need to do some additional research.

# 3 Sep 2020, 6:36

steve writes

0 thumbs

I just got a message from my Trend Micro security that said" Stopped transmission of protected data"and citing this app .exe as the cause, which after searching it led me here. This is the first time that this message appeared and i have had windows 10 since it came out. I know nothing of this app. I didn't know this app is an executable app. Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

# 2 Oct 2020, 11:51

Roger Karlsson writes

0 thumbs

@Steve: I think commsapps.exe is a legit file from Microsoft. I found a recent scan result here:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/cf586e81cf4f53e918e5c0fcac971b4d6f73d89b20effd6eb9f59516f817003d/detection

and none of the anti-virus scanners detect anything malicious. I don't know why TrendMicro reports "Stopped transmission of protected data". Does TrendMicro give more details on this data transmission?

# 8 Oct 2020, 5:37

Bill writes

0 thumbs

WHY do calculator.exe and commsapp.exe both spontaneously appear as 'suspended'?

# 23 Oct 2020, 6:55

Dez writes

0 thumbs

Bitdefender keeps issuing a warning on a specious activity where the CommsAppe.exe keeps trying to connect to the website htts://ymlmps4.com/
now Bitdefender flags this as a suspecious webpage but there is no way to activate a block to stop the exe file running to access that page
so similar to the comments above but in principle I am not comfortable that an exe file is accessing a website at all other than the official website as part of an update as I have the privacy set not to send data
so looking how to remove this app and forgo the functionality of the calendar in windows

# 2 Dec 2020, 3:17

Roger Karlsson writes

0 thumbs

@Dez: ymlmps4.com does not seem to be a registered web site.

# 14 Dec 2020, 15:03

Leave a reply