Windows 10: 'Empty' open windows on Start Up

Whenever I login to my Lenovo laptop (which goes straight to desktop) I always have 5 open windows - this can be seen by alt-tab'ing.
Two of these (spotify and skype) are clickable, the other three are not named and do not have an icon or thumbnail that you can click on. The only option is to get rid of these 3 windows (by clicking the big X at the top right hand side of each window). If you choose not to close them, they will remain there whenever you switch (alt tab) between windows.

2 questions.
How can I find out what these windows are?
How can I ensure that they are no longer they when I reboot by machine?

Thanks

:)

 

People app in Windows 10 doesn't show any contacts

The easiest way to solve this is by clearing the Windows Store cache by:

• Right-click the Start button and choose Run to open the Run window.
• In the Run window, type in WSReset.exe and click OK.
• An empty command prompt window will open up.
• When the reset is complete, the window will close and the Store window will open.
  

Update us with the outcome.

 

Word opening automatically on startup (windows 10)

Hi Joseph

Thank you for replying. I had already tried that step also, but forgot to say so in my post.

My start up folder (using the method you suggested) is empty.

In case it may assist, I have also noticed that when WORD opens after start up, it opens up four separate times. That is, there are four new WORD windows open, each with a new document template. I also noticed that winword.exe appears four times under the
"details" tab in task manager after start up, but it does not appear under the "start up" tab.

I hope you can provide some guidance on why this is happening.

Greg

 

Download and run ProcessExplorer. It does not need to be installed.

Once the error message or window is on the screen, start ProcessExplorer and drag the target icon and drop it on the error message window. It will show the process that generated that window highlighted in blue in the PE window.

Then use msconfig Startup (or Task Manager Startup tab) and Services tabs to find and disable that process.

 

Hi Ztruker

Thanks for your response.

Unfortunately there is no error message or window on the screen for me to drag the gun sight icon too, the only way I can view the un-clickable icons is if I hold down Alt-Tab, as shown in the attached screen grab.
My only option is to close each window in Alt-Tab mode by clicking on the X at the top right.





As such, I have no idea what these windows are.

Thanks

 

bump

Does anybody know how I can get rid of these windows on Startup?

 

you could go down the process list , stop the non-windows processes one by one and see if any of the windows vanish , quick and dirty method , but it would give you an idea what's causing them.

 

Add a screenshot of non-windows process from task manager. Have you recently hit by any malware ?

 

By non-windows process, do you mean those listed under BACKGROUND PROCESSES in task manager? There are 90 of those running so they wouldn't fit in a screenshot, many of which I do not know what they are. Does this sound like it is a lot?

As far as I am aware I haven't been hit by any malware

 

90 is 20 to 30 processes to many (at least).

From Task Manager, click on the Startup tab. Look through that list and see if any are ones you don't need.
Record what you are changing so you can put them back if needed.

 

@ milkychips:
You might also check the 'Startup' folders at:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
and
C:\Users\{your moniker}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

to see if there are any unrecognized executable files, or others, in those folders.

 

Agreed. to 'milkychips'- I don't even know why you want Skype and Spotify to open a window on startup. I would start in the Task Manager and see if there are any Publisher entries not common or recognizable. Disable these and anything else you deem slowing down startup (like software updaters) and reboot until problem fixed. Easy enough to re-open Task Manager and re-enable anything later. see sample screen -

 

Thanks for your responses. mrgeek - as you suggested, I have disabled both Skype and Spotify from startup, as well as some other programs (the ones that I feel like I don't need).
Of those that are still enabled, does anybody know which of these are safe to further disable, as I am still getting the three open windows on startup