Unknown characters as registry entry names | Should I be worried?

Windows Version: 20H2 (OS build 19042.1586)

Hello

I recently noticed some strange unkown charaters in my computers registry, and wanted to try to find out if it's anything I should be worried about. I only noticed it today but it may have been there longer. I only noticed it because I used malwarebytes to scan my computer and it said there was a suspicious registry key, which prompted me to open RegEdit to take a look.

The characters which are on two registry entries look like this: [] and appear to be unknown. Here is a screenshot that I took, i'm guessing that the * entry is not an isssue and has something to do with root (*.*)



Thanks.

The registry key with an asterisk (*) as a key name is standard; the other two are not.

Why not right-click on the 2 mysterious keys in turn and export the contents of each to a registry file then upload them here as attachments or paste the contents of each as text so we can have a look at them before you do anything potentially more time-consuming and drastic?

Hope this helps...

idgat said:

Main concern might be that they are characters that Windows doesn't recognise (e.g. Chinese, Cyrillic, etc) and therefore what they might relate to. They may not relate to anything malicious, but could be invasive.

Options ...
- back up the registry and then delete the "offending" entries
- image the whole system, then delete the offending entries (my preference)

and/or, with tin-foil hat on, wipe the drive and do a clean install.

I just figured out what it is after doing some deeper digging in the registry. I clicked one of them and it's name was a26_auto_file, which is an Atari 2600 file. I have RetroArch on my computer to play retro games sometimes so that is a game file relating to it. Still doesn't explain why it's an unknown character but I know it's not malicious now at least. I don't really see any need to delete it, and I can't really do that anyway since I have nothing to back up the registry on.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

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RickC said:

The registry key with an asterisk (*) as a key name is standard; the other two are not.

Why not right-click on the 2 mysterious keys in turn and export the contents of each to a registry file then upload them here as attachments or paste the contents of each as text so we can have a look at them before you do anything potentially more time-consuming and drastic?

Hope this helps...

I thought it was something like that, I knew it was something important because I used to have an old barely working laptop that was on the verge of breaking down completely. I decided to finish it off I would open command prompt and type in del *.* (and if anyone who may be reading this doesn't know what that does, do NOT do it if you enjoy having a working computer) but it didn't really work that well so I just finished it off with a zip folder filled with about 50 different viruses... And, yeah.. That did it.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Mr TommyGun said:

Windows Version: 20H2 (OS build 19042.1586)

Hello

I recently noticed some strange unkown charaters in my computers registry, and wanted to try to find out if it's anything I should be worried about. I only noticed it today but it may have been there longer. I only noticed it because I used malwarebytes to scan my computer and it said there was a suspicious registry key, which prompted me to open RegEdit to take a look.

The characters which are on two registry entries look like this: [] and appear to be unknown. Here is a screenshot that I took, i'm guessing that the * entry is not an isssue and has something to do with root (*.*)



Thanks.

There was some similar discussion here.

Well, does anyone know what this stuff is or relates to?

It appears to be tied to bad programming for file extension associations. I get them on clean installs right after I've made certain file associations with Notepad++. For me there appear at the very bottom of the sort sequence right after the 'zune' entry. I've been deleting them for a while now with seemingly no ill effects.

Farvatten said:

There was some similar discussion here.

Well, does anyone know what this stuff is or relates to?

It appears to be tied to bad programming for file extension associations. I get them on clean installs right after I've made certain file associations with Notepad++. For me there appear at the very bottom of the sort sequence right after the 'zune' entry. I've been deleting them for a while now with seemingly no ill effects.

So it's safe to delete? I'm not completely sure of myself whan i'm in the registry which is why I only open it if I have no other choice. I will try to get hold of something I can back it up on anyway just in case I do end up deleting something I shouldn't.

Thanks for the reply.

idgat said:

Main concern might be that they are characters that Windows doesn't recognise (e.g. Chinese, Cyrillic, etc)

My Windows recognizes Chinese characters. I confirm that [] is not a Chinese character but a pair of square brackets, i.e. [ and ], which have been put together. My Registry shows the same brackets:

Mr TommyGun said:

wanted to try to find out if it's anything I should be worried about.

There is nothing to worry about.