Strange window opening

[Emrys Davies]

I have Win. 7 Home Premium 64 bit

When I startup from 'Shut Down' (very seldom) I always finally get a window
which says 'Open With' Choose a program you want to use to open this file
and there are lots of options which are operable. I would like to get rid
of this action as it should not suddenly appear here so uninvitededly, but I
do not know how. It could be connected with 'File Type Assistant' which is
in 'Programs'.

 

[Paul]

I have Win. 7 Home Premium 64 bit

When I startup from 'Shut Down' (very seldom) I always finally get a
window which says 'Open With' Choose a program you want to use to open
this file and there are lots of options which are operable. I would
like to get rid of this action as it should not suddenly appear here so
uninvitededly, but I do not know how. It could be connected with 'File
Type Assistant' which is in 'Programs'.

Maybe some kind of data file, located in a Startup folder ?

It would have to be a folder, that the system evaluates at startup
and tries to run stuff. Just a guess.

The only tool I know of, off hand, for evaluating "surprises",
is Autoruns from Sysinternals. It shows some of the possible sources
of things that operate at startup. For example, right now, it tells
me that Adobe Flash has set a job in Scheduler, and that would be
so Flash can check for updates. Using a tick box scheme, you can
also control things from there.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902

Other than that, I'd be looking for whatever constitutes a Startup folder.
These tutorials are usually pretty thorough.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1401-startup-programs-change.html

As for msconfig, I have a phobia about that one, and no longer touch
that with a barge-pole. Let's just say, it caused me some grief once
(half a day's worth).

Paul

 

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

I have Win. 7 Home Premium 64 bit

When I startup from 'Shut Down' (very seldom) I always finally get a window
which says 'Open With' Choose a program you want to use to open this file
and there are lots of options which are operable. I would like to get rid
of this action as it should not suddenly appear here so uninvitededly, but I
do not know how. It could be connected with 'File Type Assistant' which is
in 'Programs'.

As soon as you see the window check Task Manager to see if there are
any unknown applications or processes running.

Steve

 

[Emrys Davies]

As soon as you see the window check Task Manager to see if there are
any unknown applications or processes running.

Steve

As a process of elimination I found that 'WsdtReplacer Unknown' in Startup
was the cause of the surprise window so I have disabled that and all is
well.

Thanks.

 

[Robert Baer]

As a process of elimination I found that 'WsdtReplacer Unknown' in
Startup was the cause of the surprise window so I have disabled that and
all is well.

Thanks.

Sounds exactly like a VIRUS or rootkit program...

 

[Paul]

Sounds exactly like a VIRUS or rootkit program...

If you Google the info he's got so far, it looks like a PUP, rather than a
virus. It seems to be related to this crap. "webshots or smile" product,
whatever that is. You can't make this stuff up.

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-21563_102-576067/how-to-remove-webshots-and-or-smile-from-my-pc/

Paul

 

[Emrys Davies]

If you Google the info he's got so far, it looks like a PUP, rather than a
virus. It seems to be related to this crap. "webshots or smile" product,
whatever that is. You can't make this stuff up.

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-21563_102-576067/how-to-remove-webshots-and-or-smile-from-my-pc/

Paul

I have deleted File Type Assistant from Programs. I also found 4 references
to it in AppData > Local and deleted those. Also in the registry (regedit)
was a WsdtReplacer key and that too has been axed so I think that all
references to the latter has now gone. It is probably harmless, but I can
always download File Type Assistant should I need it. Thanks everyone.

 

[Mark12547]

'File Type Assistant'

That sounds like a program that was stuck failing to update on my
system, and I finally just deleted it (Control Panel -> Uninstall a
Program). If there is some unknown type of file, I just use Google to
find out what kind of file it is and what type of application opens it.

Since I very seldom download unknown files, I very seldom need to
identify some strange file type.