Notepad launching randomly

[DeadlyCarrot]

I am running windows 11, recently i have started to encounter a weird issue where notepad launches on its own in random intervals and displays the message "cannot find file C:\SESSION:[insert long string of letters and numbers].txt would you like to create this file?"

 

I have no idea what is causing this and i haven't changed anything specific since it started happening, any help would be appreciated.

[tkitch]

sounds like you caught some malware.  

 

do some full scans.  Consider a reinstall. 

[Sawa Takahashi]

I agree that Malware seems likely.

You probably caught a file that wrote into the registry to execute the file with the long name every now and then. Your antivirus recognized the file as malicious and deleted it, but the reference in the registry remained and now the registry tries to launch a no longer existing file.

You can probably clean the registry to remove that auto-execution but I recommend a wipe and reinstall since you don't know if the malware planted some other nasties that went undetected.

Good luck !

[DeadlyCarrot]

Thank you for the replies!

sidenote; it is not always the same file, the alphanumeric combination changes from launch to launch, and sometimes it just outright says "Invalid file name"

i don't know if that affects the diagnosis in any way.

I'd like to start with the scanning route to rule out malware, is the built in windows antivirus enough or would you recommend something else.

Finally, how does one "clean a registry"

[Poinkachu]

13 minutes ago, DeadlyCarrot said:

Thank you for the replies!

sidenote; it is not always the same file, the alphanumeric combination changes from launch to launch, and sometimes it just outright says "Invalid file name"

i don't know if that affects the diagnosis in any way.

I'd like to start with the scanning route to rule out malware, is the built in windows antivirus enough or would you recommend something else.

Finally, how does one "clean a registry"

Try Malwarebytes for now.

Cleaning a registry is basically deleting registry entry(es).

If you delete the wrong entry(es), you will ruin your OS.