Neo

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a try. As for alternative solutions, if there was an option to temporarily disable Advanced SystemCare, it could help pinpoint whether the problem was caused by the program or Windows itself. It would also be nice if Iobit created a tool that could identify which process was causing the problem and give the option to forcibly stop it. Since Windows appears to lack the transparency of telling you upfront, and the average user would have difficulty finding the solution on their own.

It seems that increasing integration with the system has caused an issue safely removing USB through the taskbar; it appears to permanently be in use by the program at times. When I checked the event viewer to find out which process was preventing the USB's removal, it indicated a system process (id 4), which cannot be stopped. It's only after restarting the computer, trying to safely remove the USB, only to get the same error message, and checking the event viewer again, was I able to discover that it was Advanced SystemCare causing the issue... indicating this time that it was Advanced SystemCare's Monitor.exe process stopping the USB from being removed. After ending this process, the USB could finally be removed safely. This is the only solution I've found to work. If you try ending Monitor.exe before restarting the computer, it is ineffective in removing the USB; indicating a deeper system process initially causing the problem, that can only be stopped by rebooting. Having to do this obviously takes up time and power, and presents a risk for data stored in a USB drive. I didn't have this problem with the previous versions of Advanced SystemCare, which noticeably lacked integration with Windows 10's notification system when a new update was made available. It would be nice to have the option of choosing the older format, with the simple updater pop-up, as opposed to integrating with Windows' notification/anti-virus system, which appears to have caused issues, presumably.