Chrome Opens On Startup And Opens Microsoft Windows 10 help page

I noticed a strange behaviour when booting a relatively new installation of Windows 10. After logging in, Google Chrome opened shortly afterwards and opened a go.microsoft.com link which led to this
webpage:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ndows-10Chrome

It's listed nowhere on the startup section of taskmanager and I couldn't find any registry values pertaining to the go link or the URL it would go to afterwards. I tried to search the problem and saw that some Windows 10 update made it so that when the system shuts down it will relaunch any programs that were open during the shutdown sequence, but it wouldn't make sense for a go.microsoft.com link since that link only appears briefly before resolving to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...?os=windows-10 which I would imagine would appear first if the latter problem were the case. I tried seeing would it appear if I shutdown Windows with Chrome open on a single, unrelated webpage, and when it rebooted it opened the same microsoft link and alongside the other page, but has stopped since.

Would anyone have idea on what might cause this behaviour, or know where in Windows 10 the link is which leads to that URL? I'm just trying to figure out what may have caused this as it seems unusual and if it were possibly from having clicked a help link somewhere in Windows 10. Thank you for the help!

Strange. I could not get that link to load with Edge or FF.

After a new installation of Win10, Edge will initially open to a Tips/Help Page. But the link page above seems to have something to do with Virtual ?

Have you cleared your cache in Chrome and Edge ? I would reset Chrome and Edge, run AdwCleaner, and your AV.

torre said:

Strange. I could not get that link to load with Edge or FF.

After a new installation of Win10, Edge will initially open to a Tips/Help Page. But the link page above seems to have something to do with Virtual ?

Have you cleared your cache in Chrome and Edge ? I would reset Chrome and Edge, run AdwCleaner, and your AV.

Woops, the link should be:


https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...?os=windows-10


I installed chrome not long after installing windows 10 and set it as the default browser - the link never opened with Edge. The link no longer opens during boot, it did it about two or three times. It's a very new install of Windows 10 and the only software I've downloaded is the software I used before without problems on Windows 7 and official laptop drivers. (Of which I scanned all and checked certificates)

I'm thinking a possible explanation is that I opened some help link before closing down and that it came back because of the new Windows update, or as you say, could be opening because it's a new install. (Would Windows updates trigger this?) I'm worried that it could be malware so I'll run a full scan in the meantime, although I think I am over worrying with that. Just for piece of mind I'd like to try figure out what might have caused it.

Would Windows updates trigger this? Don't think so.

Have you cleaned your cache with Chrome or CCleaner or reset Chrome ? Check your Chrome settings. Also, run AdwCleaner.

Malwarebytes | AdwCleaner

BTW, there is a new update to Win10 today, 12 Dec. Make sure you are current.

I downloaded the update and nothing appeared so that seems to rule out the possibility of it occurring because of an update. I ran a full scan of Windows Defender and also ran AdwCleaner which was clean. I don't think it's an issue with my Chrome settings since I haven't changed them and it hasn't occurred since the 2nd/3rd time it came up.

This happened to me on two out of three computers. Right after updates came in, and rebooted. In my case it opened Firefox since that is my default browser.

Bobby Phoenix said:

This happened to me on two out of three computers. Right after updates came in, and rebooted. In my case it opened Firefox since that is my default browser.

It seems to be delayed or something? I rebooted my PC after doing the update and nothing happened but today it has done it again. Just to confirm it's the same link it's opening, what is the go.microsoft.com/fwlink Link ID?

I don't remember the exact page contents, but I do remember on top it said Windows 10 Help, and had a bunch of help links.

I presume you've looked in the registry and found nothing here that would start Chrome?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

And you've looked in these folders?
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
C:\Users\<USER-NAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

And you've tried the freebie Autoruns program?

I've searched those registry keys and start up folders with no indication of Google Chrome being set to launch anything. I searched the URL that opens (Which is an official Microsoft URL) and it doesn't appear anywhere in the registry. I

I've used Autoruns and the only Chrome entries are for the usual update services it runs and installer processes. Booted the machine today and it didn't open. Very peculiar problem - whatever causes it to launch doesn't seem to be permanently tied to the start up sequence since there seems to be no indication of that whatsoever and doesn't seem to be consistent either - If it's because of an update I'll have to wait for another update to figure out, unless there is another way of finding out what does This.