what is masetupcleaner.exe

Running Windows 7.  Uninstalled Kies yesterday.  Booted up Today and I was prompted to allow MASetupCleaner to run.  Found it in C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and removed it (shoot first ...).

Looking at the other files there with the names starting with MA, several had similar details copyrights ca. 2004, Korean language, and company details in Korean characters.  "MA" apparently stands for MarkAny, which is a digital rights management company.  It appears this is for combating music piracy and is associated with Samsung Kies.

I suspect that this was going to uninstall the MA software, and the fact that it was started after I rebooted was just a consequence of sloppy uninstall programming.  Of course I don't know that, it could have been installing something that would have remained resident on my machine after Kies was uninstalled.

My advice is to accept running MASetupcleaner from the popup

I refused running at the pop-up and the PC worked fine; I run MASetupcleaner manually from the directory where it is located and the PC worked fine as well (Windows 10)

If Samsung are claiming this is not their software then they are either lying or Kies is compromised.

Samsung are their own worst enemy. They have turned away so many users of their devices with their rubbish and invasive software. I know I'll never buy another of their products.

Same here. I uninstalled Kies yesterday and on reboot this morning, it popped up in UAC asking to be run, which of course I denied.

Having seen lots of posts saying this problem is due to Kies, I wrote to Samsung.  They say it is nothing to do with them.  Here is their reply to me:

Thank you for your email. Your customer reference number is xxxxxxxxxx.

In regard to your recent query, after consulting with our technical specialists I can confirm that this programme is not related to Samsung KIES. It will also not have been downloaded as an extra programme along with Samsung KIES.

When you install Samsung KIES you will only be installing that programme, there are no third party programmes or bloatware.

I can only recommend seeking the advice of your PC manufacturer for assistance on this matter.

I was only too willing to blame Kies, as it was such a useless programme, but it looks as though we'll have to blame someone else this time. 

Now, when I search for MAsetupcleaner on my PC, it finds nothing.  I did recently install SpyBot, so maybe that got rid of it.