Process that disappears when hovering over it

[shoutingsteve]

So... I have this weird process that chews up about 80% of one of my cores when it runs (randomly).  It is called helper.exe.  I've looked into it and there seems to be two prevailing descriptions: bitcoin miner and browser sub-process.
The weird thing is, when i see the cpu core working and open my task manager I can find the process easily, but as soon as I click it to try and open its location it disappears: GONE. and the cpu core quiets down.
I searched my computer for helper.exe and found two instances.  I put both into zip folders and then deleted the originals but that didn't stop it from still happening.  These locations were in my webcam program folder and my old sound card folder.

 

So does anyone have any idea how it could just disappear as soon as I click on the process?  Is it really that smart of a program that it knows it's being watched?

[Vishera]

14 minutes ago, shoutingsteve said:

The weird thing is, when i see the cpu core working and open my task manager I can find the process easily, but as soon as I click it to try and open its location it disappears: GONE. and the cpu core quiets down.

Try process explorer,it's an alternative to task manager.

To find the location of the file right click on the process >> properties >> image

then press the "Explore" button

[shoutingsteve]

4 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Try process explorer,it's an alternative to task manager.

To find the location of the file right click on the process >> properties >> image

then press the "Explore" button

I've downloaded it and will try this next time.

[shoutingsteve]

[shoutingsteve]

can anyone else follow this path on their computer (windows 7x64) and tell me if it is supposed to be there?

UPDATE: i followed the path and saw the description "shadows die twice" and figured that an't possibly be a windows feature... Turns out is is some videogame that I have never played.  I created a zipped copy and deleted the exe.  Let's see if it helps.

Edited November 13, 2020 by shoutingsteve
updated with new information

[Vishera]

15 minutes ago, shoutingsteve said:

UPDATE: i followed the path and saw the description "shadows die twice" and figured that an't possibly be a windows feature... Turns out is is some videogame that I have never played.  I created a zipped copy and deleted the exe.  Let's see if it helps.

That's suspicious,especially since that game costs money and you did not install it.

As for the contents of the folder there should be no executables there.