My home PC (XP) has been acting a bit funny in various ways. Explorer sometimes doesn’t work, sometimes there is a complaint that system files are missing (but mostly not). I’ve tried virus checking but can’t find anything. However, I’m not looking for general troubleshooting help.
One thing that started happening recently (perhaps co-inciding with the problems starting) is that just after startup, a text box (like would open if you ran cmd.exe) flashes on the screen very briefly, as if a batch file or something is running. It flashes up so quick I can’t read it.
Apart from being very quick with the “Print Screen” key, is there any clever way to slow this down or prevent the box from closing so I can read it and see what is going on?
I’m wondering the same thing with respect to my work computer. I had an outbreak of the Awola malware, and I think I eradicated most of it, but this remains.
I suspect that you’re also checking the registry for startup items too, yes? (In the hives called HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, in the parent key Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion, there are sub-keys named Run and RunOnce.)
If it’s something more insidiously installed than that, the only thing I can think of is using one of the logging boot modes (using F8 as Windows starts to bring up the boot menu).
Have you tried Hijackthis ? - it will generate a log file, detailing all of the processes that are set to run on your machine. Paste the log file into this page to have it analysed - each item will be identified and assigned a risk level. Hijackthis can then be used to disable or remove any offending items.
It might be some quite benign bit of software such as the driver for a camera, printer or scanner.
I tried hitting Print Scrn and after a few times I got it. It was c:/xn1i9x.com which is malware, and that lead me to various other files, and I seem to have cleaned it all out. Bit of a puzzle as to how I picked it up, and I’m not entirely sure I’ve got to the bottom of it, but we shall see.