How can I find out what is causing a Cmd Prompt to open and close?

chrisan · 24 May 2017

I was on vacation for about 10 days, so I'm not sure exactly when an app/windows was updated but this problem definitely started in the last 2 weeks.

I will be typing away in my editor or playing a game and I will see a Command Prompt open and close very fast. Sometimes it will take focus away from my game and leave me in an alt-tabbed kinda state where I have to click back in the game to regain mouse control

How can I find what could be periodically launching this?

I have opened Task Scheduler and found some hourly tasks (Chrome/Adobe/Dropbox) that I changed to run in mornings only but this "popup" happened again. Sorting the Task Scheudler by Last Run Time I don't see anything that has run in the last hour

Where else could this be happening or is there any other way to trace when a program launches Command Prompt?

Bobby Phoenix · 24 May 2017

Past experience is it's either Office checking for updates, or a printer/driver looking for updates. The best solution is to screen capture it when it happens, so if you know it happens at a certain time, run a screen capture software, and the titlebar of the CMD should show you what is doing it. The other thing you can try is a little program called Focus. Since you said it takes focus away when it happens maybe Focus can tell you what is causing it.

focus - happydroid

Samuria · 24 May 2017

One drive often runs this to update onedrive a very handy tool for this sort of thing is WinPatrol Downloads Page it warns you before things like this are added and seeks permision so you know what doing it. Its not AV but in my experance stops more than any AV as it will block and malware trying to set its self to start

VBF · 25 May 2017

Good morning all. My first post so please be nice!

OP, have you run your A/V scans including Rootkits?

Have you run AntiMalware scan? I like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Malwarebytes | Free Cyber Security & Anti-Malware Software

(I use the free one so have to scan manually)

Does this issue occur if you just boot up and watch the screen for a while (coffee time!)

If not, can you definitively say what programs are running in the foreground? You mention editor or game...are they both active or just one or...?

chrisan · 25 May 2017

Thanks all for the replies! I have no viruses/malware.

I ran the focus tool as suggested by Bobby and it appears to be DisplayFusion. Everytime I notice it flash on my screen I switch to the focus app and see DisplayFusion.exe.

I'll mark this as solved and reach out to their developers from here. Thanks again!

EdTittel · 25 May 2017

You should check the Scheduled Tasks and search for DisplayFusion.exe. Because MS makes this hard to do in Task Manager, try Nir Sofer's excellent TaskSchedulerView. I used this last year to find an incredibly vexing pop-up cmd window, which proved to be a scheduled update check from Driver Update (which I no longer use, partly for that reason). I also wrote an article for TechTarget in December of last year that explains what I did, and how I did it that you might find interesting and informative: Take control of Windows tasks with TaskSchedulerView.
HTH,
--Ed--

chrisan · 25 May 2017

Thanks Ed, that app indeed shows more than the normal "Task Scheduler"

I had it happen again and I see OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration was the last run (nothing else was close by minutes).

I found this thread which talks about insider builds (I am not an insider) Identifying an App? - Windows 10 Forums but I'm guessing this made it into the production build.

I guess DisplayFusion.exe would try to capture/do something with that window, I'm still not sure why that shows up with the focus app.

VBF · 02 Jun 2017

@chrisan
Could this Microsoft Office bug - Fix is out to download, but thereâ€™s a catch | Tech | Life & Style | Express.co.uk be a clue to your problem?