Program called "Program" in Task Manager

[mtwest]

When I check the Startup in Task Manager one of the programs that now shows up in called "Program." It lacks a publisher and was by default enabled upon startup (I set it to disabled while trying to figure WTF is going on). Both the properties and open file location are greyed out. It was not here when I got the system two days ago.

 

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

[ARikozuM]

Suspicious program is entirely conspicuous.

[ARikozuM]

4 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

vIRUS

Sir, that is racist! How dare you offend and profile non-living things with your blind hatred.

[mtwest]

BitDefender AV Free doesn't find anything. Will see what Defender has to say.

Do any of you have recommendations on how to clean the system?

[ARikozuM]

Clean install?

Click on "program" and find its location. Delete?

Clean install?

Kaspersky Rescue Disk?

Clean install?

System Restore?

Delete System32?

Did I mention clean install yet?

[evilarceus]

Funnily enough, I have that exact same thing in my startup tab in Task Manager. Investigation time!

[Himommies]

4 minutes ago, evilarceus said:

Funnily enough, I have that exact same thing in my startup tab in Task Manager. Investigation time!

so do i

[evilarceus]

Okay, found out. It's not a virus, it's just a program that did not clean their auto-startup entry on uninstallation. Not sure how to remove it though, but it shouldn't affect anything.

[mtwest]

1 minute ago, evilarceus said:

Okay, found out. It's not a virus, it's just a program that did not clean their auto-startup entry on uninstallation. Not sure how to remove it though, but it shouldn't affect anything.

How did you determine this? Useful for all of us to know this going forward.

[ARikozuM]

9 minutes ago, evilarceus said:

Okay, found out. It's not a virus, it's just a program that did not clean their auto-startup entry on uninstallation. Not sure how to remove it though, but it shouldn't affect anything.

So, what OS does the mighty Dark Plate Arceus use?

 

Also, f#ck you for choosing EA as your resting place. /s #HallofOrigin

[Guest]

1 minute ago, mtwest said:

How did you determine this? Useful for all of us to know this going forward.

End Task and see if that program ''program'' does anything. If computer still works probably a malicious stuff

[mtwest]

3 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

End Task and see if that program ''program'' does anything. If computer still works probably a malicious stuff

It's not an active process or at least its not showing up in the Processes tab in Task Manager. Hopefully @evilarceus can enlighten us as to how he made the determination that it was just a poor Windows Uninstall on his box.

[imreloadin]

26 minutes ago, mtwest said:

When I check the Startup in Task Manager one of the programs that now shows up in called "Program." It lacks a publisher and was by default enabled upon startup (I set it to disabled while trying to figure WTF is going on). Both the properties and open file location are greyed out. It was not here when I got the system two days ago.

 

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Screenshot?

[mtwest]

Pretty bare bones in terms of what has been installed on here. And all legit software. Well other than the obvious red-flag.

[evilarceus]

17 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

So, what OS does the mighty Dark Plate Arceus use?

 

Also, f#ck you for choosing EA as your resting place. /s #HallofOrigin

Well, I'm using Arceux, a fork of Linux to be used by quantum computers.

And also, I'm using a Grass Plate cause IT'S FUCKING CHRISTMAS AND SHIT

[mtwest]

I can second evilarceus that this is due to an incomplete uninstall process by Windows.

 

While in Task Manager, right click the headings row and select Command Line to include that as a column in the table. This should display what is run being run as if you were doing it via CMD. In my case, it was NZXT's CAM software still being stuck around after an uninstall. Anybody got a recommendation (or a link the forum to relevant thread) for a Windows Uninstaller that doesn't leave this sort of cruft laying about?

 

Here is the link from Microsoft's own forum that helped me figure out what the issue was. First link in a google search for "program called program in startup."