What's the second one for? I didn't get it.

For the same it seems but it runs on command line (like command prompt), without a graphic interface.

Sorry for hijacking the thread! :troll:

  I'd start by downloading a copy of Sysinternal's Autoruns-for-Windows (and now a Microsoft product) at: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx  It's a safe, standalone product that doesn't need installation, being run directly from its exe file, though it does need admin privileges.

Does it work on XP?

I believe so. I know that 12.03 did, and the current 13.51 is shown as being XP compatible on most of the freeware sites (in fact, it shows as Win2000 compatible on many of them). The MS sites don't list XP compatibility any more, regardless of whether a program has it because - well, because that's how MS does things regarding their OS versions after end-of-support. Given that the software doesn't actually 'install' but instead runs from the executable, it should be easy enough to try it out to make sure.

Well, it says
Download Autoruns and Autorunsc - is it right? Like some two things there? It should be?

The exact link you did provide isn't suspicious by itself. However, the triggering process is not normal for a non-IE browser on Windows 7 or 8.1, and indicates something abnormal has occurred. There are a variety of possible causes, though at this point, there's not enough information details to conclude exactly what. Possibilities: registry corruption, Microsoft update gone haywire, Microsoft Windows 10 "push" update gone haywire, or a Windows internal attempt to bring up a certain Microsoft information/alert page gone haywire.

go.microsoft.com/fwlink

Does it look suspicious to anyone? Or do I just have to live with it?

If I have time I'll test it and let you guys know but otherwise thanks for the help!

@freedom3401
I suspect that the "www.go-" link you're seeing very briefly is a "http://go.microsoft.com...." link.
They are usually used to redirect to other Microsoft pages.

...
Weird thing is, when I went back to autorun, I could not find any entry related to Opera for today's date. However, I did notice a pre-link(?) before the http://www.msn.com/en-gb/ page was brought up. Unfortunately I was not fast enough to note down the pre-link but it looked something like www.go-....? What I did try to do was restart and also did a proper shut down, and on all those occasions Opera did not autostart. So it made me wonder if it could be an entry in 'News' or part of Windows to autostart the MSN homepage once a day?
...

There shouldn't be any kind of 'pre-linking' in Windows 8.1 unless it's somehow been messed up by one of the Windows 10 pushed-upgrade notification attempts contained in some of the Microsoft updates over the past 6 months. If you can get a better glimpse of what the 'pre-link's' domain name is at some point, it might be helpful. There can be a world of insight contained in the nature of a domain name, particularly if malware is involved.

I'd start by downloading a copy of Sysinternal's Autoruns-for-Windows (and now a Microsoft product) at: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx It's a safe, standalone product that doesn't need installation, being run directly from its exe file, though it does need admin privileges.

Does it work on XP?

I believe so. I know that 12.03 did, and the current 13.51 is shown as being XP compatible on most of the freeware sites (in fact, it shows as Win2000 compatible on many of them). The MS sites don't list XP compatibility any more, regardless of whether a program has it because - well, because that's how MS does things regarding their OS versions after end-of-support. Given that the software doesn't actually 'install' but instead runs from the executable, it should be easy enough to try it out to make sure.

Weird thing is, when I went back to autorun, I could not find any entry related to Opera for today's date. However, I did notice a pre-link(?) before the http://www.msn.com/en-gb/ page was brought up. Unfortunately I was not fast enough to note down the pre-link but it looked something like www.go-....? What I did try to do was restart and also did a proper shut down, and on all those occasions Opera did not autostart. So it made me wonder if it could be an entry in 'News' or part of Windows to autostart the MSN homepage once a day?

I think I have only taken more notice of the issue over the last couple of days because the only time I had to restart my computer was a machine check exception BSOD which I think may have resolved now (so maybe that forced/error restart resetted the clock or something?)

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated else I will review it again tomorrow to see if it happens again because I have not made any changes whatsoever since that last autostart.

Sorry guys I'm really not much of a techie but I do really want to rid this weird issue.

Cheers x

I'd start by downloading a copy of Sysinternal's Autoruns-for-Windows (and now a Microsoft product) at: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx It's a safe, standalone product that doesn't need installation, being run directly from its exe file, though it does need admin privileges.

Does it work on XP?

It will show you virtually everything that is set up in a Windows installation for being auto-started, regardless of where it is or what mechanism is being used to force the auto-start. There are more ways to start programs than just via putting them in a Start folder, and you need to find out where this is being triggered from.

Anyway, start with malware cleaners (ADWCleaner, Malwarebytes MBAM). If this doesn't help, you can download Autoruns from MS technet - it shows every tiniest bit of autoloading software; there you should find offending entry. If you are not sure what to delete, just ask

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

and see if Opera is listed there, and also in

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Anything there should have shown up in Task Manager though.