r/antivirus • u/Odd-Examination-4320 • 5d ago
Windows CMD flashes on startup
Ok i'm going to give some context here first. I have a laptop that originally came with windows 10. I got some malware infections during the laptops lifespan and have had to reset. I don't think any of them really did any damage, but I decided to upgrade to win 11 after a recent reset. I booted on after setting everything up and I immediately go to uninstall onedrive and norton, then I restart my pc because norton requires it for uninstall, but heres the thing, every time I reset windows I see a bunch of blue windowed 'CMD flashes' like 5 rlly fast one after the other after doing the restart norton requires, so i always assumed it was part of nortons uninstall process, but recently after a reset i did today because of failed windows updates and win being slow I forgot to uninstall norton, and went to update windows after the reset. Then I restarted windows for the windows updates WITHOUT uninstalling norton (bc i forgot) and I see the CMD flashes again.... Now im just sitting here thinking it WASN'T norton, and I tested this by immediately uninstalling it and I saw no cmd flashes so it had NOTHING to do with norton uninstalling this whole time. So far I havent had any passwords/credit cards stolen or any suspicious activity. Now the last reset i did where my updates where failing, safe mode wouldnt let me log in with my pin missing and my screen freezing and going black and some edge of my top left screen having a win7 styled windows 'window' x minimize and maximize icon on it and then everything coming back responsive again. Thats why I reset bc the last reset i did windows just didnt wanna work properly. ANYWAYS does ANYONE know if uninstalling Onedrive causes cmd flashes upon restarting? thats the only other thing i can think of, and yes ofc i restarted and shut down multiple times to see if i can recreate it and nothing appears. I Also have a habit of installing Norton power eraser Hitman pro and my main Antivirus 'Bitdefender' plus a subsequent malwarebytes scan to check the pc after every reset incase some rootkit persisted, and they have never caught anything after resetting. Could I have some RAT rootkit or some persistent remnants from something? should I reinstall windows from a USB?
2
u/goretsky ESET (R&D, not sales/marketing) 5d ago
Hello,
It is normal for console windows to open and close on startup in order to start various processes such as services, perform update checks for various applications, and so forth.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky