Task Manager startup program with a unknown publisher

[Emil_Loenneberg SE]

Hi

In my task mangers startup list, I have "EpicGamesLauncher" as a program that does not start up everytime I boot up the PC. I am curious why I have this since I don't actually have the Epic Games launcher on my PC. It also says it has no publisher. I was just kinda worried if this could be a virus or something. 

 

I feel like I should say that I have had the Epic Games Launcher before, but since then I uninstalled it.

[Murasaki]

It looks to be Disabled so it definitely wont start on boot.

What you can do is rightclick on it and "Open FIle Location" and see what it is. If it doesn't exist, it might be an uncleaned remnant. Have you ever had the Epic Games launcher installed on your system?

[CPL_Jimmy]

Hi,

You can right click on EpicGamesLauncher in startup and choose properties... this will show you things like where it is installed in your system.

Also, within properties there is a tab for Digital Signatures, Epic Games should have 2 Digital Signatures assigned to it, A sha1 and a sha256 signature, clicking on them and looking at their details, both signatures should be issued to "Epic Games Inc." and issued by "DigiCert SHA2 Assured ID Code Signing CA."
If you find this information, then it is likely that Epic Games Launcher was installed on your computer at some point and was not properly uninstalled.
However... if you suspect you may have some form of malware or if you cannot verify this information, then make sure to run both an antivirus scan and an antimalware scan on your system.
All that said, as the startup item is disabled, it is not likely causing any problems at all... and is likely an error from a previous installation.  I do have Epic Games Launcher, and I can verify that when you disable startup within the program it completely removes this startup option from Windows.
Hope this helps.

[Emil_Loenneberg SE]

2 hours ago, Murasaki said:

It looks to be Disabled so it definitely wont start on boot.

What you can do is rightclick on it and "Open FIle Location" and see what it is. If it doesn't exist, it might be an uncleaned remnant. Have you ever had the Epic Games launcher installed on your system?

Yes it's disabled, but I can't open it or look at properties. It's blank, so it doesn't allow me to click it.

[Emil_Loenneberg SE]

1 hour ago, CPL_Jimmy said:

Hi,

You can right click on EpicGamesLauncher in startup and choose properties... this will show you things like where it is installed in your system.

Also, within properties there is a tab for Digital Signatures, Epic Games should have 2 Digital Signatures assigned to it, A sha1 and a sha256 signature, clicking on them and looking at their details, both signatures should be issued to "Epic Games Inc." and issued by "DigiCert SHA2 Assured ID Code Signing CA."
If you find this information, then it is likely that Epic Games Launcher was installed on your computer at some point and was not properly uninstalled.
However... if you suspect you may have some form of malware or if you cannot verify this information, then make sure to run both an antivirus scan and an antimalware scan on your system.
All that said, as the startup item is disabled, it is not likely causing any problems at all... and is likely an error from a previous installation.  I do have Epic Games Launcher, and I can verify that when you disable startup within the program it completely removes this startup option from Windows.
Hope this helps.

I can't open it or look at properties. It's blank, so it doesn't allow me to click it.

[Murasaki]

Then its probably non-functional and is most like a leftover registry key. The easiest way of removing it is going to the Registry Editor and removing the "EpicGamesLauncher" key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

 

You should also be able to see what file path it used to be in!

[CPL_Jimmy]

28 minutes ago, Emil_Loenneberg SE said:

I can't open it or look at properties. It's blank, so it doesn't allow me to click it.

Being blank should not block you from clicking it... but... if you have an Epic Games account... you can try to download, install the Epic Games Launcher... inside the launcher toggle "Start With Windows" On and back Off.  And see if that clears it from your startup list.
Alternatively you can probably ignore it.
Or, if you trust yourself to do it, there are programs out there, like CCleaner, that can be used to manually delete entries from the Startup list.  Although, I would not leave CCleaner installed, and if you use it, make sure you DECLINE any offers it gives you.

[Emil_Loenneberg SE]

8 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

Then its probably non-functional and is most like a leftover registry key. The easiest way of removing it is going to the Registry Editor and removing the "EpicGamesLauncher" key under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

 

You should also be able to see what file path it used to be in!

Yep that worked thank you so much! but I also deleted EpicGames from Software by mistake because I thought that was the thing I needed to delte, but it should not be a problem since I don't actually have it on my PC anymore right?

 

[Murasaki]

4 minutes ago, Emil_Loenneberg SE said:

Yep that worked thank you so much! but I also deleted EpicGames from Software by mistake because I thought that was the thing I needed to delte, but it should not be a problem since I don't actually have it on my PC anymore right?

I don't really know what that contains (probably some settings) but yeah probably won't effect anything.

[Emil_Loenneberg SE]

11 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

I don't really know what that contains (probably some settings) but yeah probably won't effect anything.

Yeah that was just like UnReal Engine and some other stuff, but I don't really have any of that on my pc. Thank you again!