Suspicious behaviour on taskbar

[trylo]

I have noticed that from time to time there is a weird flicker on my taskbar. Very suspicious, so I turned on the screen recording to catch what is going on.

What happens is it looks like there is an app opening for just a split of a second and then it closes down. Of course, I'm afraid of some malicious software running on my computer.

I don't run any pirated software on my machine, so I'm unsure where it could come from.

Is there any way to find out what app does that?

 

Thank you for your help in advance!

[Murasaki]

Have you narrowed it down to any specific action you're doing, specific timeframe or its completely random?

What you should check is whatever programs are running on boot (using Autoruns or Task Manager) and currently running process to see if theres anything that stands out.

[trylo]

8 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

Have you narrowed it down to any specific action you're doing, specific timeframe or its completely random?

What you should check is whatever programs are running on boot (using Autoruns or Task Manager) and currently running process to see if theres anything that stands out.

I have a pretty constant set of apps that I keep open throughout the day, but I'll try to close some to see if it's associated with one of them. For sure it's not connected with a specific action I'm doing, it seems like it's every 15 minutes or so. It's hard to say for sure as it's just a blip in my periferal vision. I'll try to record screen with Task Manager open to see if something comes up.

 

Thank you for your tips on how to tackle this.

[thevictor390]

Open task manager sorted by CPU and keep it open while making a similar recording. See if anything bubbles up at the same time. You can try processes and details tabs.

[TheLANguy]

14 hours ago, trylo said:

I have noticed that from time to time there is a weird flicker on my taskbar. Very suspicious, so I turned on the screen recording to catch what is going on.

What happens is it looks like there is an app opening for just a split of a second and then it closes down. Of course, I'm afraid of some malicious software running on my computer.

I don't run any pirated software on my machine, so I'm unsure where it could come from.

Is there any way to find out what app does that?

 

Thank you for your help in advance!

I have been having this same issue for a few months after updating Windows. I doubt it is malicious.

For me, it is caused by switching desktops (typically while using a second screen). The icon reappears when dragged to the right.

 

[trylo]

15 hours ago, TheLANguy said:

I have been having this same issue for a few months after updating Windows. I doubt it is malicious.

For me, it is caused by switching desktops (typically while using a second screen). The icon reappears when dragged to the right.

 

Interesting. I have 2 monitors and I use 3 desktops, so maybe it is connected, although it's not happening at the moment of switching desktops.

[TheLANguy]

5 minutes ago, trylo said:

Interesting. I have 2 monitors and I use 3 desktops, so maybe it is connected, although it's not happening at the moment of switching desktops.

Does pulling the invisible icon to the right make it reappear?

[trylo]

2 hours ago, TheLANguy said:

Does pulling the invisible icon to the right make it reappear?

The invisible icon appears for a split of a second - there is no chance to click on it or pull to the right.

There was a Windows update yesterday. Today I haven't noticed the appearing icon so far...