Microsoft specialist and The Verge author Tom Warren noted over the weekend that he was always being offered updates by the store for apps he did not even install on his system. On Reddit are also various reports, according to which the “problem” probably has been around for some time, but since the release of Windows 10 version 1903 has strengthened again.

The users report that they are informed in the Microsoft Store about the availability of updates for various apps that were already part of the operating system’s factory settings but have since been removed by the user. Often the apps and games preinstalled for promotional purposes, including Candy Crush, Farmville 2 and Dragon Mania.

The updates are also available for some classic system apps that are optional in nature – including Microsoft Messaging and Microsoft Sticky Notes. The curious thing about the phenomenon is that the apps were at least “officially” uninstalled by the user in the usual way. Even removing any remnants, such as a live tile in the Start menu, does not seem to prevent the affected users from being offered the “ghost updates”.

So far, there was no official statement from Microsoft on the subject and it is unclear how large the number of affected users actually. If you want to prevent the incorrectly displayed app updates, you can use Powershell measures to try to eliminate them, in which case it can not be ruled out that this will not cause any problems.