Unknown File in Winsock LSP NWPROVAU.DLL

Martin Brinkmann
Apr 27, 2009
Updated • May 30, 2017
Windows
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4

A recent scan of a Windows XP SP3 computer system with HijackThis displayed the following entry in the results: O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\windows\system32\nwprovau.dll.

Nwprovau.dll is usually installed for the IPX / SPX protocol, something that is rarely - if at all - used anymore these days. It is still in most cases a legit dynamic link library and most would suggest leaving it alone because of this.

It is on the other hand not really needed if Netware is not being used on the computer system.

It is however not possible to fix the item directly in HijackThis should you want to remove it. Again, this makes only sense if you are sure that it is not needed, or if you are experiencing issues and are certain that those issues are caused by it.

Note: We suggest you create a backup of the system before you run the program below. This gives you an option to restore the operating system to a previous state.

A portable software program called LSP-Fix comes to the rescue. It has been primarily designed to fix Winsock errors.

The program is interesting in this case as it can be used to remove the nwprovau.dll dynamic link library from the computer system.

The box "I know what I'm doing" has to be checked before that option becomes available. The program lists the currently installed dll files in the left column, nwprovau.dll should be one of them. All that needs to be done is to select this dll and click on the arrow that points to the right to move it to the Remove column.

Keep in mind that this will remove the dll permanently from the computer system (creating a backup before proceeding might be a good idea but needs to be done manually as the repair utility won't create one during the process).

A click on the Finish button completes the process and removes all files that are listed in the remove column from the computer system.

Alternatives to using the program are to boot the PC using a Linux live CD to remove the file from it this way. While it is unlikely that XP users will find the file listed on their system, it is even less likely that this is an issue on newer versions of Windows.

Again, you need to be certain that the file is not required for anything on the system before you remove it.

Summary
Unknown File in Winsock LSP NWPROVAU.DLL
Article Name
Unknown File in Winsock LSP NWPROVAU.DLL
Description
Find out how to remove the file NWPROVAU.DLL if you spot it in c:\windows\system32\ of your Windows XP computer system.
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Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Bob said on May 31, 2009 at 5:43 pm
    Reply

    That’s good! That means you don’t have any “unknown files” in Winsock LSP.

    If you ran LSP-Fix you probably would see just the three listed in the image above.

  2. Alessandro said on April 27, 2009 at 11:12 am
    Reply

    I have scanned the system with HijackThis but I do not see any reference to
    O10 – Unknown file in Winsock LSP

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