3 RunDll32 processes opening on startup

Hi all,

(First off, I'd like to say that I've never done one of these before, so apologies if I lack the etiquette for this situation!)

I'll keep this short and sweet:

On startup, one rundll32 process is always opening (the one highlighted in the image), and shortly after a second one appears, and then a third one. They aren't in the startup tab of task manager, but they open every time. This worries me because...

1. I have had malware / trojan issues previously on this pc, but have reset it since and all has been well, except for this.
2. After looking online many people say that this is an indication of malware / bad business in general.

I've attached a screenshot of these in task manager as well as their file path.

Is there something wrong here?

[Windows Version number: Version 2004 (OS Build 19041.508)]

Berton said:

Don't know that it's "wrong", I get 3 and sometimes 4, just attribute it to loading things in the background, has never given a problem.

Oh right, even if they don't go away?

Thanks though, I've been worrying about this for awhile. Literally everywhere I looked said 3 rundlls meant your machine was under seige from an army of trojans lol

The real danger from malware isn't in what you see, but what you don't. Modern malware is VERY good at itself and wouldn't normally leave suspicious signs of it's presence. It is fully capable of manipulating Task Manager or similar utilities to show you what it wants you to see. And for a modern malware author this isn't particularly difficult. But it very often isn't necessary because the malware isn't in the form of a process at all.

Modern malware is so good at hiding itself that an expert could spend several hours with a computer using all the latest tools and not find it. That is why it is often recommended that after a malware infection it is best to reinstall or restore the OS from an image. You can never be sure it is gone.

There are many things that could potentially indicate the presence of malware but none are conclusive. There are multiple legitimate reasons for multiple rundll32.exe instances.