[Help] Can't identify what's causing the Open With dialog

[drewlover]

Every morning at 5am, I recieve the Open With dialog, and it doesn't tell me a) what process is trying to open, b) what type of file it's trying to open.

No matter what I try with, I receive an error saying "Cannot find C:\Program" and sometimes has an extension if the app auto-applies (such as notepad, or MS Paint).

I've checked my logs, and even created a view of all logs within the last 24 hours, but I'm not seeing anything helping identify anything.

At 5:01:19 for the past few days I see event ID 4624, immediately followed by 4634. Best I can tell by the log, and event IDs are windows is re-authenticating a mounted network drive. However, I'm seeing these same events a lot throughout the day, and they never cause the Open With dialog except at 5am.

This is driving me crazy... I really don't want to try a format, and figure this can be determined somehow.

HELP!?

 

[alphanumeric]

Run msconfig and go to the startup tab. It will list everything that loads when windows starts up. Then look though the list and see what's what.

 

[David Bailey]

Might be a virus.
Maybe do a Boot Scan?

 

[drewlover]

Run msconfig and go to the startup tab. It will list everything that loads when windows starts up. Then look though the list and see what's what.

I'm looking for advanced answers. Just to throw this out there, I'm pretty fluent with Windows.

Also, it has nothing to do with startup, because the system hasn't been shut off since the initial windows updates (uptime being nearly 5 weeks now).


I also did a malware scan with spyware and malwarebytes, and antivirus check with avira, avg, and nod32 (which is a pain since you have to install them individually, and uninstall old ones). It's also NOT an update for anything like AV or spyware tools; I verified their update times, and it's well before 5am.
Also did a registry clean with ccleaner.

Everything is clear.

I might just write an app to spit out all the arguments, register it in the Registry to be an "Open With" app for all file types, and then choose it next time... but man this is frustrating!

 

[kcmike]

Could it possibly be a task that is scheduled at that time and the application is no longer installed on your system? You said you haven't rebooted in 5 weeks. Maybe it was left behind after an uninstall.

 

[drewlover]

Could it possibly be a task that is scheduled at that time and the application is no longer installed on your system? You said you haven't rebooted in 5 weeks. Maybe it was left behind after an uninstall.

So I rebooted a few times recently installing various antivirus applications just to verify...

But... I think you just hit the nail on the head. Task scheduler isn't showing any having ran in the last 24 hours, however when I look in the ACTIVE tasks, I do see MyDefrag set up for 5:01am! I don't want a daily defrag anyway, so I'll disable it and verify tomorrow if it fixes the issue.

Can't believe I didn't think of scrolling down to the "active tasks!" Thanks for clearing the air of my brain fart

EDIT: HAH! Look what I found! Windows 8 Task Scheduler problem

 

[kcmike]

Awesome!!