If you have PC App Store on your PC and you cannot close its pop-up or uninstall it normally, this guide is the fix. It covers the removal procedure, the cleanup that catches what an uninstall leaves behind, what to do if you have already been charged, and how the software usually gets onto a machine so you can avoid a repeat.
The short version: you need Safe Mode. The uninstaller will not cooperate in a normal Windows session.
Before You Start: Get Your BitLocker Recovery Key
Method 1 works by deliberately interrupting the Windows boot process. On a drive protected by BitLocker or Device Encryption, which is enabled by default on many prebuilt and OEM Windows 11 machines, that can produce a prompt for a 48 digit recovery key on the next start.
Retrieve your key before you begin, using a phone or another PC. Sign in at account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey with the Microsoft account tied to the affected PC and write the key down. Business or school devices store the key in Azure AD or with the IT administrator instead.
If you are not sure whether encryption is on, check Settings, then Privacy and security, then Device encryption. Assume it is on and get the key anyway. It costs five minutes and it is the difference between a cleanup and a lost drive.
Method 1: Force Windows Into Safe Mode
This is the procedure we ran on a live installation on August 7, 2026. Safe Mode starts Windows with third-party background processes disabled, so nothing is left running to interfere with the uninstaller. When the pop-up has locked the screen and you cannot reach Settings or the Start menu, you force your way into the recovery environment instead. Windows enters it automatically after several consecutive failed boots, and you can trigger that deliberately.
- Step 1: Restart Windows. As soon as the loading screen appears, cut power using the reset button, the PSU switch, or by pulling the cord. If you’re on a laptop, hold the power button down the moment the loading screen shows up. If your laptop is too fast, try holding it earlier.
- Step 2: Repeat that interruption two more times, each time at the first sight of the loading wheel. Three or four consecutive failed boots is what triggers recovery.
- Step 3: Windows should now start into Automatic Repair, Preparing Automatic Repair, or the Recovery screen. Select Advanced options, then Troubleshoot.
- Step 4: Select Advanced options again, then Startup Settings, then Restart when prompted.
- Step 5: A numbered list appears. Choose Safe Mode. In our own removal, plain Safe Mode would not start and Safe Mode with Command Prompt, option 6, is what worked. Option 5, Safe Mode with Networking, is useful if you want a scanner available.
- Step 6: Open Control Panel, then Programs, then Uninstall a program. Select PC App Store and uninstall it.
- Step 7: While you are in that list, also remove anything named PC App, PCApp, nwjs, nw_store, Fast, or Get Fast. These have been reported alongside it.
- Step 8: Complete the cleanup checklist below before restarting.
- Step 9: Restart normally.
Method 2: If You Can Still Reach The Start Menu
If the pop-up has not locked you out completely, you can reach the same recovery screen without cutting power, which avoids the encryption and file system risks entirely. Either route works.
- Option A: Hold Shift on the keyboard and click Restart from the Start menu power button.
- Option B: Open Settings, go to System, then Recovery, then click Restart now under Advanced startup.
From the recovery screen, continue from Step 3 of Method 1. If the uninstaller still refuses in Safe Mode, or Windows reports that you are not the administrator when you know you are, use Method 1 instead.
Cleanup Checklist
An uninstall is not the same as a clean removal. Work through this while still in Safe Mode, before the machine boots normally again.
| What to check | Where to look | What to remove |
|---|---|---|
| Startup entries | Task Manager (Ctrl plus Shift plus Esc), Startup apps tab | Any entry referencing PC App Store, PCAppStore, Fast, or nwjs |
| Scheduled tasks | Task Scheduler, Task Scheduler Library | Any task pointing at a PC App Store executable |
| Program folders | C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files (x86) | PC App Store, PCAppStore, or Fast Corporation folders |
| User data folders | %LocalAppData% and %AppData%, typed into the File Explorer address bar | The same folder names as above |
| Browser settings | Chrome, Edge, or Firefox settings | Unfamiliar extensions, changed homepage, changed default search engine |
Scheduled tasks are worth particular attention. A leftover task is a common way for software in this category to relaunch after an apparently successful uninstall.
Once you are back in a normal boot, update Windows Security and run a Full scan rather than a Quick scan. While you are there, confirm that potentially unwanted app blocking is switched on, under App and browser control, then Reputation-based protection settings. It is the setting that covers this entire category of software and it is not always enabled by default.
If the PC handled any logins while the software was installed, change those passwords from a different device once the machine is clean.
If You Have Already Been Charged
Treat this as a billing matter as well as a software one, and act on both at the same time.
- Cancel in your account: Sign in on pcappstore.com, open the menu under your name, select My subscriptions, then set Auto-Renewal to Off for the subscription you want to end.
- Put it in writing: Email [email protected] as well, so you have a dated record of the cancellation request independent of the account interface.
- Know the notice period: Section 3.2 of the company’s published Terms and Conditions, effective April 6, 2026, states that cancellation takes effect thirty days after the request is received, and that fees continue to accrue during that window, including pro-rated fees if it extends into a new billing cycle. Section 3.3 states that mandatory consumer protection rights in your jurisdiction take precedence, and specifically references fourteen day cancellation rights in the EU and EEA, the UK, and Israel, and the California Automatic Renewal Law.
- Contact your bank: Call your card issuer, cancel the recurring authorisation on the card itself, and ask what your options are regarding a chargeback. Public reviews describe users needing their bank to stop repeat charge attempts after cancelling.
- Ignore payment update emails: Users have reported follow-up messages stating that a payment failed and asking them to update their payment details. Do not re-enter card information through a link in an email.
What PC App Store Is
PC App Store is a Windows software marketplace published by Fast Corporation Ltd., a company registered in Israel and based in Raanana. It has an official website, a business portal, published terms, and support numbers for several countries.
Microsoft Defender Antivirus classifies it as a potentially unwanted application under the detection signature PUAAdvertising:Win32/PCAppStore, published in August 2023. Microsoft’s threat encyclopedia entry lists slow performance, added or modified files, changes to desktop settings, freezing or crashing, and reduced storage space as behaviours associated with the detection. Other vendors have logged it under names including PUP.Win64.PCAppStore and PUA.Win64.PCAppStore.SMA.
The specific behaviour that brings most people to a guide like this one is documented across Microsoft’s own support forums through 2026: a pop-up that cannot be dismissed, an uninstaller that does not complete, a message stating the user lacks administrator rights when they do not, and an account creation form requesting a credit card. The pricing shown on that form at the time of writing is a free first week followed by automatic renewal at 9.99 USD per month.
Note that PC App Store is not the Microsoft Store. The two are unrelated, and removing PC App Store does not affect Windows or the Microsoft Store in any way.
How It Usually Arrives
Very few people install this deliberately. There are three common routes.
- Advertisements on download pages: On free utility sites, PC App Store is advertised through ad networks using a large green Download graphic. On a page whose entire purpose is providing a download, an advertisement shaped like a download button is easy to click by mistake, particularly for a first-time visitor who does not know what the real download section looks like.
- Software bundles: Security vendors consistently describe it arriving as an optional extra inside another program’s installer, pre-selected or buried in an Express or Recommended install path.
- Lookalike download domains: Misspelled or imitation versions of well-known utility sites serve their own installer packages rather than the genuine ones.
The defences are straightforward. On any download page, ignore buttons inside advertisement frames and scroll to the plain text file listing, which is usually less prominent than the ads around it. Bookmark the genuine download pages for tools you use regularly so you never navigate to them fresh. Always choose Custom or Advanced install rather than Express or Recommended, and read every screen before clicking Next.
Related: The CPUID Download Compromise, April 2026
This is a separate incident and a considerably more serious one, mentioned here only so that the two are not confused.
According to Kaspersky’s account of the event, between approximately 15:00 UTC on April 9 and 10:00 UTC on April 10, 2026, download links on cpuid.com were randomly redirected to trojanised packages delivering the STX remote access trojan through a sideloaded CRYPTBASE.dll. CPUID has stated that a secondary API was compromised, that its signed original files were not affected, and that the breach has been fixed. Kaspersky reported identifying more than 150 victims.
If you downloaded CPU-Z, HWMonitor, PerfMonitor, or PowerMAX during that window, that is not a potentially unwanted application problem and this guide does not address it. Run a full antivirus scan, and change every credential that was used on the machine.
