Startup Items Missing

[Cheemag]

Good Afternoon,

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, up-to-date.

Help ! Items keep disappearing from my startup list. I put them back in, but they
disappear at random intervals. I mean actually disappear, not just fail to start,

I've checked C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

This has nothing in it at all, and C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup has only the non-registry items which I put in there (put back in there).

Could I make the items read-only so that they don't get deleted by whatever is doing this.

Kaspersky 2017 says the machine is clean, as does MWB and ADW Cleaner.

 

[Megahertz07]

You have two startup folders:
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup is for all users.
- C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup is for the current user only.
Any shortcut on this folders should be run at start up.

Can you explain what kind of files keep disappearing from your startup folder?
What you mean by "has only the non-registry items which I put in there"?

 

[Cheemag]

You have two startup folders:
- C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup is for all users.
- C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup is for the current user only.

Yes. ..Start Menu\Programs\Startup is empty.

The one in AppData\Roaming has 3 entries:

11/07/2016 16:59 1,348 AutoHotkey - Shortcut.lnk
21/05/2017 14:03 998 MagicDisc.lnk
11/07/2016 15:32 983 MiniMinder.lnk

Any shortcut on this folders should be run at start up.

Not always in my case ...

Can you explain what kind of files keep disappearing from your startup folder?

AutoHotkey yesterday and Magic Disc the day before. I stress they are not just
failing to start, they disapear from the Roaming folder.

What you mean by "has only the non-registry items which I put in there"?

Some startup items are run by/from the Registry and don't appear in these startup folders.

 

[Anak]

Can you disable magic disk and see if your startups appear?

I don't like the sound of this:

MagicDisc has automatically Detecting engine, so user try to open any CD/DVD image files with MagicDisc.

Source: http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm

And: Windows Explorer Embed.

MagicISO embed Windows Explorer and use the double window unification user contact interface. Use the quick button and the mouse Drag & Drops files between Windows Explorer and MagicISO so that you can handle the CD/DVD image file easy but powerful enough.

Source: http://www.magiciso.com/index.htm

It would also help if you can show snips of Disk Management before and after you disable magic disk.

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

 

[Cheemag]

Can you disable magic disk and see if your startups appear?

They do, yes. I've deleted the startup entry for Magic Discs but the pseudo-discs are still there and useable.

I don't like the sound of this: It would also help if you can show snips of Disk Management before and after you disable magic disk.

If there are doubts about Magic Disc I can delete it, make new ISOs and use another application.

Screenshots Before.jpg and After.jpg attached. The Magic Disc entries are drives G: and H:

 

[Anak]

If there are doubts about Magic Disc I can delete it, make new ISOs and use another application.

Try your suggestion for awhile and see if your concerns settle down. It looks like magic disk is either not right for your system or it isn't configured right.

 

[Cheemag]

Thing is MagicDisc isn't malware. MagicIso is. I have the former.

It isn't just Magic Disc, Autohotkey has disappeared in the past and today NordVPN didn't initialise. The latter though, is called up by Task Manager, so that too is less than satisfactory.

The Magic Disc executable isn't now running although its two pseudo-CDs are still perfectly useable.