Empty CMD window pop up?

[Marko C]

So I've been having these random empty CMD windows pop up and disappear within milli seconds and it now has gotten to the point to where im worried.

I've just assumed they are some kind of quick windows update or patch but since they havent stopped i want to know what causes the pop ups.

I've ran a full scan with AVG and Malwarebytes and they both haven't found anything.

It doesn't happen often at all maybe once a day but it does get annoying and worriesome as it could potentially be harmful.

I saw that another guy posted about this as well but no answers has solved it so far.

 

Thanks.

[DexterSmythe]

Did you install any viruses recently?

[Marko C]

Just now, valdyrgramr said:

Were you running anything .bat based, or was it legit random?  Any updates going on when it happens?

It happens randomly , it has happened while i was playing Skyrim for example. I didnt see any updates going on. I thought it was maybe preparing for the new windows 10 update but it has happened more since then.

This has happened more than once and every time it has happened it has been random.

[DexterSmythe]

Just now, Marko C said:

It happens randomly , it has happened while i was playing Skyrim for example. I didnt see any updates going on. I thought it was maybe preparing for the new windows 10 update but it has happened more since then.

This has happened more than once and every time it has happened it has been random.

How long has it been going on for?

[Marko C]

1 minute ago, CapedCrusader21 said:

Did you install any viruses recently?

Well no im really paranoid on what im downloading so i dont think its a virus.

To be honest i dont really know for about 6 months maybe? 

 

[ProjectBox153]

I've had this before. Sometimes my server shows a CMD windows and it's just loading AMD drivers. 

[Marko C]

2 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

I've had this before. Sometimes my server shows a CMD windows and it's just loading AMD drivers. 

Does it have text written on it? Because when it happens to me it doesnt have anything on it. 

I wouldnt be surprised if this is what's happening to me but NVIDIA drivers.

But as i said earlier it happens so fast i can barely manage to see it

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, Marko C said:

Does it have text written on it? Because when it happents to me it doesnt have anything on it. 

I wouldnt be surprised if this is what's happening to me but NVIDIA drivers.

But as i said earlier it happens so fast i can barely manage to see it

Sometimes it does and sometimes not. 

[Marko C]

10 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

I'd check if any background updates installed for anything.  Check if steam updated anything.  And, also check things like task manager, startup programs, and even event viewer.  One thing I'd do is attempt to trigger it and see if task manager picks up a random process or whatever.  Heck, you could even go into program and features and check if anything weird was installed.  Same area where you can check installed updates.

I've only downloaded games from steam recently that's what programs is showing.

I only have a few startups, audio drivers , logitech , avg nothing really that stands out.

 What am i suppose to look for in event viewer?

[Technomancer__]

Me too

Also when I play Witcher 3 it closes it so am really annoyed

Btw doesn't happen on other games

[ProjectBox153]

It could be AVG doing something. I've also seen this on a system of mine that has AVG. 

[Doramius]

Does it seem to pop up when you open specific applications?  Many times it's running a quick command to start a program from the command line level.  This is common when administrator privileges are required.  You may not always see it because it runs so fast.  However, it should only be appearing when you access applications.  if you're watching a video, it should not randomly appear.  That would be an issue with something else.

[Marko C]

Just now, Doramius said:

Does it seem to pop up when you open specific applications?  Many times it's running a quick command to start a program from the command line level.  This is common when administrator privileges are required.  You may not always see it because it runs so fast.  However, it should only be appearing when you access applications.  if you're watching a video, it should not randomly appear.  That would be an issue with something else.

Nope it pops up randomly, It has happened when i've played games like Skyrim for example and it has happened when i was just idle talking with friends on discord.

[Marko C]

6 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Any logs that seem shoddy or problematic from when it started, but the programs and features, plus the update portion, will tell you if even anything else was installed.  BTW, are automatic updates enabled by any chance?

If you're talking about windows updates no that isnt automatic , i dont think anything i have is on automatic when it comes to updates.

Programs and features only shows 4 updates

Microsoft visual c++

security updates for windows and for adobe flash player

I dont know what you're talking about when you speak about logs i have no idea how to look for shady logs

[Marko C]

4 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

If anything, then, it's probably just a bug from an update.

Wait i think i know what you mean by looking at logs , I know that the window popped up about an hour ago

Im looking through events that happened today back from 2 hours ago and i dont see any "warnings" or "errors"

 

https://gyazo.com/e517ddc51f72f4c553ba85a1826a9f19

This is what im seeing does any of those look shady?

 

Looking back i see many warnings that's "Certificate for local system with tumbprint" what's that about?

 

Yeah I think its either an update bug or maybe some driver updates that seems the likeliest

I just dont want to have a threat on my pc in the background without knowing about it you know

[Marko C]

3 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

That can mean many things.  You'd have to show me each error/warning it gives about it.  However, certificate issues wouldn't cause this problem.  Another thing you could try is reinstalling drivers as this seems driver bug related at this point, maybe program...but, I'm leaning on driver...

Yeah im gonna try to reinstall drivers and see what that leads me

Thanks for the help!

[Technomancer__]

30 minutes ago, Doramius said:

Does it seem to pop up when you open specific applications?  Many times it's running a quick command to start a program from the command line level.  This is common when administrator privileges are required.  You may not always see it because it runs so fast.  However, it should only be appearing when you access applications.  if you're watching a video, it should not randomly appear.  That would be an issue with something else.

Randomly even at idle nothing opened

Btw I checked startup, services and task scheduler and there nothing

[mariushm]

For stuff that starts automatically when you start your computer, use msconfig (start > run > msconfig  in windows 7 at least) or other tools that show you what programs are configured to automatically start. Remove whatever entries you're not familiar with.

 

For example, some application or driver you installed at some point may have put there a command to run something at first reboot and the application that was launched after reboot was supposed to delete the record but due to some bug maybe the record was never deleted. So now every time, windows tries to launch that application which may no longer be there (because it was supposed to be executed only once and then delete itself or something like that)

 

Also check what applications run in background (quick launch helpers or automatic update tools for various shareware products). See what you have in the system tray or what's running in background using Task Manager.

 

For example, you may have some tool doing checks for updates and every once in a while it finds the update and tries to download the update or launch the update tool but maybe for some reason the process fails and you only see a command window. The tool then continues to stay in background and after another few hours it checks for software updates again and the process repeats because it keeps failing to retrieve the update.

 

[Marko C]

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

For stuff that starts automatically when you start your computer, use msconfig (start > run > msconfig  in windows 7 at least) or other tools that show you what programs are configured to automatically start. Remove whatever entries you're not familiar with.

 

For example, some application or driver you installed at some point may have put there a command to run something at first reboot and the application that was launched after reboot was supposed to delete the record but due to some bug maybe the record was never deleted. So now every time, windows tries to launch that application which may no longer be there (because it was supposed to be executed only once and then delete itself or something like that)

 

Also check what applications run in background (quick launch helpers or automatic update tools for various shareware products). See what you have in the system tray or what's running in background using Task Manager.

 

For example, you may have some tool doing checks for updates and every once in a while it finds the update and tries to download the update or launch the update tool but maybe for some reason the process fails and you only see a command window. The tool then continues to stay in background and after another few hours it checks for software updates again and the process repeats because it keeps failing to retrieve the update.

 

I'll keep that in mind, Im not running any third party tools. 

As a last resort maybe i can do a clean windows install and start from scratch if it truly is a software that is trying to download a driver that doesnt exist or something like that, But that will be as i said my last resort

And Btw im running windows 10.

[Healiing]

Happening to me too. And some friends too. Many posts on it on internet, nobody know what it is.

 

What we know: it's new, doenst seems to be specific at Intel or AMD plateform, neither GPU (Happened on Radeon users and on 9XX and 10XX gtx). It's not related to anti-viruses either, tested with Malwarebyte;Kaspersky; Esset;.. 

 

But what we know is that it only appears on Windows 10 PC that aren't updated to the "creator update". I also saw that most of users experiencing this problem are gamers, might be due to the over-CPU usage, or maybe a Windows ad for the Creator Update that auto-leave when a process is running in fullscreen. 

 

PLEASE, if you're experiencing the same problem, write your  pc specs, if you're using steam, your windows version, what anti-viruses are you using.

 

EDIT: We found the problem, it seems to be a Microsoft Office Activator. (Found via checking logs.)

[SniphzR]

It started for me today too. I just installed Zotac Firestrom driver, that must cause it.

[Mechman007]

8 hours ago, Healiing said:

Happening to me too. And some friends too. Many posts on it on internet, nobody know what it is.

 

What we know: it's new, doenst seems to be specific at Intel or AMD plateform, neither GPU (Happened on Radeon users and on 9XX and 10XX gtx). It's not related to anti-viruses either, tested with Malwarebyte;Kaspersky; Esset;.. 

 

But what we know is that it only appears on Windows 10 PC that aren't updated to the "creator update". I also saw that most of users experiencing this problem are gamers, might be due to the over-CPU usage, or maybe a Windows ad for the Creator Update that auto-leave when a process is running in fullscreen. 

 

PLEASE, if you're experiencing the same problem, write your  pc specs, if you're using steam, your windows version, what anti-viruses are you using.

 

EDIT: We found the problem, it seems to be a Microsoft Office Activator. (Found via checking logs.)

Thanks! This is happening to me to... Both at work, and at home. However, I haven't noticed it on my study lap top yet. Please advise me when you find a fix

[Mechman007]

From what I have observed thus far- This has occurred at 6:04 pm, and 8:04 pm for me. I missed any earlier times this had occurred, although I'm thinking there may be a pattern of #:04.... Maybe 1 or 2 hours apart?

 

EDIT: 9:04 PM also... So my guess, every hour.

[Lyetnel]

Same issue here, after the last update which is 1703 that i've done recently. Doing a full scan with Windows Defender right now. No idea what is causing this. 

 

It is too fast that i can not even read what it is saying in cmd. I am thinking to set up an OBS recording after the scan and slow motion it just to see what it is..

[domandric034]

2 hours ago, Lyetnel said:

Same issue here, after the last update which is 1703 that i've done recently. Doing a full scan with Windows Defender right now. No idea what is causing this. 

 

It is too fast that i can not even read what it is saying in cmd. I am thinking to set up an OBS recording after the scan and slow motion it just to see what it is..

Maybe it is Microsoft just spying on us (Uploading our search history and other private stuff on server) to make Windows 10 "better"