Unusual Activity on Startup

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On a Dell computer running Windows 10 22H2, I have an interesting problem.  When I start up (whether from sleep or after a full boot), there is a rash of activity that takes over everything for perhaps 5 to 10 minutes.  During that time, it is difficult to do anything.

I have run multiple, diverse virus and malware programs, and they say all is well.

When I run Task Manager, I cannot find any service or programs that appear out of the ordinary.

Once that unusual activity finishes, everything runs normally.

What would you suggest I run to see what is causing the problem?

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Have you checked startup tab in task manager ?

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Kenneth Stephens

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That is a great suggestion.  Unfortunately, when I checked it, there was no unusual activity shown.

I suspect that there is some sort of Microsoft service that runs deep in the background.

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Do have dropbox or similar? On many machines with dropbox I notice that and don’t even attempt to fool with them until the syncing is done

Never Say Never

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Kenneth Stephens

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The moment you start/wake your PC open task manager
or
better still, open task manager at PC boot

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Kenneth Stephens

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Hi Kenneth,

in Task Manager, have you tried sorting by CPU usage in the Processes tab? If not, try checking to see if Antimalware Service Executable (linked to the Microsoft Defender Antivirus Service) is the culprit.

I have a similar issue with this, and while it doesn’t impair my system to any serious degree, it does spike my CPU usage for about the first 10 minutes and I’m not sure why. I use Defender as my active AV, whereas I previously used third-party.

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Kenneth Stephens

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What AV software do you use (like Norton 360)? Norton is known to “lockup” (use all the CPU available so other tasks can’t be performed) a PC while checking for and update Norton’s AV definitions.
Whatever AV software you do use, check to make sure it is not set to preform a scan on bootup.
Also, boot to Safe Mode and see if the activity still occurs to help narrow down the causing app/service.

HTH, Dana:))

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Kenneth Stephens

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You might want to use Microsoft Sysinternals Autoruns free program to see what is automatically starting and taking up time, and disable any unwanted programs or processes that you do not need to “Autorun”.

A decent ‘How to use’ article is here at ‘HelpDeskGeek’ link:
https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-use-autoruns-to-disable-startup-programs-on-windows/
The official download website for Sysinternals Autoruns:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns
How to Use Autoruns to Detect and Remove Malware on Windows:
https://www.varonis.com/blog/how-to-use-autoruns

Two WiFi engineers got married. The reception was fantastic.

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Kenneth Stephens

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To me, this sounds like a typical Windows 10 with a mechanical hard drive. If that is the case, you should strongly consider an SSD. Windows 10 and later are virtually unusable is the OS is on a hard drive, and it gets worse with every update.

If you are already using an SSD, then there is some software at play as others have mentioned.

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Kenneth Stephens

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Once you get task manager running at startup, you can sort and re-sort the columns. You can determine which resource or resources are taxed, be it CPU or memory or disk.

For example, if someone only has 4GB of memory, Windows will thrash at startup with 100% spinning disk. Why? There are a large number of scheduled tasks set to run at startup.

For example, you may have to disable Windows indexing. Or you may have to prevent Windows Update from running at startup. Or you may have to delay or prevent some other tasks or programs from running right at startup.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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Kenneth Stephens

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Thank you to all who responded to my problem.

It turns out that Windows Defender was surreptitiously upon startup (without my asking for it) screening every email.  Unfortunately, I get a lot of spam in my Thunderbird email, so each time, Defender was taking a lot of time.

I have now prevented Defender from doing that, without disabling Defender’s highly effective virus protection (not an easy task).

Speaking of spam, the spammers have apparently found a way to circumvent spam protection:  when they are identified by my software as a spammer I have listed, they use an alternate email address for themselves for the next time , which lets their spam through.  If any of you know a way around that tactic, please let me know.

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oldfry

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We almost never get spam, maybe once in six months. All our email is solicited. We download our email from the server. We use GMail.

GMail does NOT include the spam folder when downloading mail. So we never see the spam and forget it’s there. But we still get plenty of spam on the GMail server that is available to be seen through the GMail web interface.

GMail can produce false positives, so we have to check the online spam folder very rarely for missing email, maybe once in six months.

We don’t give up scanning for malware through the email route.   Once our security suite detected a virus in an attachment and immediately took care of it. We don’t notice any slowdowns using our security suite with 8GB+ memory, unless it’s processing a potential hazard, a rare event.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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Spammers have always (since the very early days) changed sender address. Your spam filter needs to be way more sophisticated than just filtering on sender.

My email service (not gmail) stops spam before it even reaches me, but gmail still lets through some, which Thunderbird promptly drops in the spam folder.

What is your anti-spam software?
Mail software?

cheers, Paul

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