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Patch reliability is unclear, but widespread attacks make patching prudent. Go ahead and patch, but watch out for potential problems. |
Those Command Prompt windows were probably running scripts in the background. Have you recently installed a program, run updates? Has Defender or your A/V program recently updated? Thoes could be the normal results of operations completing after reboot/startup.
One of them is probably the GatherNetworkInfo script (C:\Windows\System32\gathernetworkinfo.vbs), triggered as a scheduled task at every ‘logon’. The other is almost certainly one of the many other scheduled tasks that have ‘logon’ as a trigger.
As scheduled tasks, they do not appear as startup items in Task Manager.
Perhaps the easiest way of checking is to download and unzip Nir Sofer’s small, free and portable TaskSchedulerView (making sure to download the ‘bitness’ version that matches the ‘bitness’ of your OS… most likely 64-bit).
Once unzipped, do this:
1. *Right*-click on TaskSchedulerView.exe and choose Run as administrator then accept the UAC (User Account Control) prompt that appears by clicking on the Yes button.
2. When TaskSchedulerView opens, click on the Last Run column header (a) once or twice to sort the entries so the latest run tasks appear at the top of the list.
3. Scroll across to the Run On Logon column (b). Tasks which are triggered at ‘logon’ are the most likely cause of the 2 command prompt windows which briefly appear, even though the Hidden column (c) shows there should be no user interface.
For more info you can *right*-click on entries and choose Properties (or use ALT+Enter).
Hope this helps…
I’m not seeing any more command prompt windows, but figured I might as well play it safe. Please let me know what you think of the logs.
Unfortunately the TaskSchedulerView.zip file only contains its config file. Please re-run TaskSchedulerView (as administrator) then press SHIFT+CTRL+S together. Important: In the Save dialogue that appears, please change the Save as type dropdown to Comma Delimited Text File (*.csv) before saving to a file, zipping and attaching. Not only is the resulting .CSV file very much smaller than the corresponding .TXT file but, more importantly, it will let me sort by columns.
Whilst AutoRuns is an excellent utility to show *what* runs, unfortunately it doesn’t provide sufficient information about *when*. As a result the Scheduled Tasks tab isn’t helpful… because it doesn’t show the necessary Last Run info. The only time/date info is a Timestamp column which is almost farcical in the results shown. For example:
However, what is does show is that your device appears to have been upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and that a number of no longer needed Media Center tasks are still active, even though the files are now missing.
I doubt that any of these failed tasks are responsible for the flashing command prompt windows but you can always disable these tasks (by removing the tick in the first checkmark column) or just delete them.
You DO have the GatherNetworkInfo task enabled but I suspect the two flashing command prompt windows were caused by the 2 commandline-driven Office 16 Feature Update tasks:
In TaskSchedulerView see if the Last Run coincides with when you saw the two command prompt windows briefly appear.
Hope this helps…
You’re correct, I did upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. I also think you’re onto something about those Office feature updates. Here’s the proper log.
Your original post was Sept 11th… but there’s no entries in the TaskSchedulerView log for *any* tasks on that day, let alone any ‘logon’ tasks.
If either of the command prompt windows were due to background MS Office updates then it looks like one may be ‘Work Folders Synchronisation’ and another may be ‘Office Feature Updates’ – both recurring ‘logon’ events.
Do you use Cyberlink’s ‘Virtual Drives’ app? It’s set to run every ‘logon’?
Similarly, do you actually use CyberLink’s ‘MediaLibrary Service’ (also triggered by ‘logon’)… or was CyberLink software just bundled by HP with your PC?
Is your PC still within warranty? ‘Cos it looks like it’s going to be checking with HP today/tomorrow. (Sorry, I’m in the UK and have no idea where you are so this is vague.)
Then, of course, you have your ‘Adobe Acrobat’ software doing an update check every ‘logon’.
(Is your PC sluggish just after logon but then speeds up after ~5-10 minutes?)
Hope this helps…
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