Windows 7 How can I find out which process or program is active

[jPaulB]

Hi everyone,

I keep hearing a tone sound from somewhere in the background of my Windows-7 that makes me think something suspicious or even harmful may be working.

I have disabled all of the sound tones associates with any Windows event except "Close Program" and "Open Program". The only tone I hear is the one associated with "Close Program".

So now I keep hearing that "boing" sound several times in the background. It will sound two or three times quickly....then remain silent for five or so minutes and then ... "boing..boing.....boing".

How can I observe my O/S with the idea of knowing which process/event/or program might causes this tone to be sounded?

I know of nothing that is actually closing that often, and am naturally pretty worried about what's going on.

P.S. This all started about a week ago, when my sound card driver was corrupted. I simply re-started my computer to resolve that.

Many thanks to any ideas,

Paul

 

[patcooke]

Try removing the sound card from your device manager, rebooting and allowing your systdem to re-detect the sound card and re-install it.

 

[jPaulB]

Thank you, Pat. I appreciate this

 

[jPaulB]

Well, that didn't resolve the issue.

I still randomly hear those tones that suggest an executable (or several executables) have opened ... and the subsequent tones that suggest it/they are closing.

I can sit and stare at the list of processes from the task manager. The number of of items in that list increases and decreases.

I can't seem figure out how to capture the names that might be operating.
Is there a way to dump the names in that list to a text file. I could then compare one list to another to see what differences there are?

Thanks again,

Paul

 

[patcooke]

Try running autoruns free from here:

Autoruns for Windows

It gives you a much better picture and control over what is running.

 

[jPaulB]

Thanks Pat,

It'll take some time to use this tool, Sysinternals is pretty deep. Looks like I'll be able to learn just about anything I want concerning my O/S and what it's "really" doing.

I can't seem to unzip it though. Am I doing something wrong there? (The components are available right from the "ExpressZip" window so unzipping is not a show stopper right now.)

Thanks for the tip though. Time for me to go to the Link Removed site and try and learn about this one.

Thanks again Pat

Paul

 

[patcooke]

Just right click and unzip then run (no install needed) autoruns.exe (right click and run as admin to make changes). To test something out just uncheck the box next to it to stop it running. Delete it at some later stage when you're confident it isn't needed.

 

[jPaulB]

Just a thought, Pat

autoruns provided a pretty complete list. I`m a little concerned because it listed programs that have been removed from my computer. I searched the registry and didn`t find any reference to the stuff listed.

How did it do that?

If you happen to notice this and answer ... Thanks

Paul

 

[patcooke]

If the items you're referring to are highlighted in a yucky shade of yellow then they are leftover entries from uninstalled programs or failed installs and are flagged as not being found. They can be deleted.

 

[holdum333]

Hi I like this freeware to find the files left behind after a uninstall. REVO does a good job of uninstalling, but even Revo leaves some files behind.
I think you will like this App. It's good for a lot of things! No PUP's here on this down load.
Downloads.
Autoruns is a excellent program!