Mysterious File execution attempt on startup.

[karlkras]

Not sure if this is the result of an attempted virus attack or ?
A few days ago I began getting this open file attempt during a system start up.
Other then an irritant, it doesn't seem be posing a problem. Running scans on my system doesn't find anything overly interesting but I'd like to identify where it is and how to get rid of it.

Can anyone provide some hints on how to go about eradicating this condition?

thanks!
K2

 

[whs]

That window is associated with Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Associations. Have a look in the startups whether there is something related to it.

 

[karlkras]

Thanks,
I understand what it's asking for... Windows doesn't have an associated reader for the file type that the 'happy' file is in. What my question is, what could responsible for issuing the request to read it in the first place? And, how do I remove it? I have no interest in opening file "happy" and thankfully there is no associated file reader.

I'm not manually attempting to read it, it's happening automatically when the system starts, that's the problem.

?

 

[whs]

When you search the whole C:, do you find a "Happy" file or anything by that name.

 

[karlkras]

Okay, that worked... I found the Happy file in the Users directory. Looks like a safe text file with some host data copied into it... My guess is something may not have cleaned up after a use (system might have been shut down unexpectedly).

But is it normal behavior for the W7 system to attempt to start any file that it finds under the c:\users directory? I moved it out of this location and restarted and sure enough, problem solved. But my question as above, is it default behavior for W7 to execute files found at this location? Would seem to be a security problem if so.

thanks!
Karl

 

[whs]

Karl, you ask a good question that I am unfortunately unable to answer. But nevertheless I am glad that you got rid of the bugger.

 

[Golden]

Karl,

The startup behaviour sounds suspicious. Can you upload and scan the file using this on-line scanner VirusTotal - Free Online Virus, Malware and URL Scanner

Regards,
Golden