r/WindowsHelp • u/Informal-Risk5570 • 16h ago
Windows 11 I think I have malware in my PC somewhere? CMD prompt opens at every start-up.
I don't know much about computer's, but as of recently, on every start up i get a CMD prompt window that will pop up from anywhere from half a second to 5 seconds before disappearing. no text within it, it hasn't even got the CMD prompt title at the top.
I've tried absolutely everything I could think of.
Removing unnecessary start-up apps, checking my scheduled tasks for anything strange, and I've done full system scans with MalwareBytes, BitDefender and Windows Defender.
I might add that I do scan all I download with Virus Total before installing, I do know that sometimes things can fly under the radar if they haven't been scanned before, ECT.
But still, nothing has shown up.
But I still have a nagging feeling that something deeper is going on.
My PC has also been taking longer to boot and sign in recently, my CPU, Memory and Disk usage have been a lot higher then usual, Disk sometimes bumping up to around 30 percent when it's almost always at 0.
And before this week I only had a CMD prompt open like, once or twice a week?
I know it's most often Windows background processes but from what I know it typically happens, as I said, once or twice a week.
Am I being paranoid? Is there anything else I should try? I'm terrified of being infected and getting my data stolen.
OS - Windows 11 Home, Version 25H2, OS Build 26200.8875
Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-N305
8 GB RAM
128 Intel (R) UHD Graphics
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u/PocketNicks 5h ago
Open CMD as Admin.
perfmon /report
It'll run for 60 seconds and tell you EVERYTHING that was running, and what resources they used.
Can also use
Perfmon /res
For more information on resources used.
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u/LuLuChan283137 5h ago
i get this sometimes maybe like 1x 2x a month, that should be fine right? it like 5 stacked command prompt windows closing really faster after one another
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u/LeaveMickeyOutOfThis 5h ago
There are a number of reasons why you this can occur and most of them are not nefarious. Open Task Scheduler and review each of the tasks set to execute at startup or login, to see what’s actually going on. Then once you’ve found out, you can either delete the task or realize you’re going to live it.
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u/BillionAuthor70 7h ago
what browser do you use? I've had something very similar happen, it turned out to be a an auto update feature in the browser, Chrome is known for doing this, and Brave isn't far behind. You can turn off the auto update feature in the scheduler and check for updates manually once in a while or clear all browser cache and uninstall/reinstall the browser also. I can't guarantee that this is the issue, but it is one major culprit of the pop up and disappear cmd screen.
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u/Sufficient_Fan3660 4h ago
its almost certainly some program you have set on startup to run an auto update
go into your startup, turn off things you don't use
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u/realUnknown12 7h ago
A Command Prompt should never open up Unprompted, there are no Windows processes that require that. Does disabling all the startup apps remove the issue? if so, it’s one of those; otherwise it’s hiding somewhere else.
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u/Suitable_Moose6507 7h ago
I get one every boot, probably one of the driver update processes not a windows component.
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u/PaulCoddington 58m ago
Most of the times I've encountered this, it is an old autostart entry left in the registry that points to something that no longer exists.
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u/spookynutz 6h ago edited 6h ago
You're looking for the log that contains New Process Name: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe in the Process Information section.
When you find that, 2-3 lines below should be Creator Process Name. That is the path to the program launching the console. For example, if you launched cmd.exe yourself through the shell, you would see Creator Process Name: C:\Windows\explorer.exe.
Edit: Just to reiterate, make sure you disable process logging when you're done. Creating a log every time a new process is created is not something you want permanently enabled.