Windows 10: Hundreds of hidden Chrome now IE processes after installing software

Hi, on Windows 10 x64 Home here, build 1511. Last night I installed two bits of software to allow using your own audio as output on Windows 10 (something that was easier on Windows XP) linked from this youtube video:

Google hangout cant talk microphone text to speech solution. - YouTube

REMOVETHIShttp://stereomixplus.com

REMOVETHIShttp://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm

The VB Audio virtual audio cable driver seemed relatively inoccuous but the stereomixplus (which it turned out I didn't need anyway) installed some extras, Lavasoft Adware helper, and possibly more nefarious stuff. After installing, then uninstalling stereomixplus and the lavasoft software, I was seeing multiple Chrome hidden processes running which seemed to spawn more and more. So I blocked Chrome in Kaspersky network monitor, then uninstalled as I don't actually use it. I did a scan with malwarebytes and F Secure online scan and nothing was found.

Thinking everything was OK, I went to use Edge this morning, with just a few tabs open (on clean sites) I saw many connections in both Edge, and then in Internet Explorer hidden processes open up - increasing to over 100! Is this normal behaviour for both Chrome and Internet Explorer to launch these hidden processes? Could the Chrome processes have just been it updating itself, and the IE part of normal Edge functioning? Can anyone recommend any further scans or checks I can run to see if something is awry, thanks!!

:)

 

File Explorer - Administrator Mode?

Web search: windows
10 view hidden folders

 

IE 11 Continues to Error Out

I have Windows 10 installed and have been running Chrome for a number of years. Chrome recently failed and I decided to return to IE instead of reworking Chrome. I have installed all Windows 10 updates (as if I had any choice in the install of updates)
and all the IE updates. I'm running the latest of everything.

Right after changing back to IE I went to a few of my favorite web pages. Some did not work with IE (they worked with Chrome) and IE periodically stopped working. I receive a very uninformed message that IE has stopped working and Windows will close the
program and notify me if a solution is available. It has been doing this for 3 days now and never have I been offered a solution.

The pages that won't open in IE will open in Chrome and Firefox, some even open in TOR.

This feature of IE that it stops working is why I went to Chrome years ago. And here I am back and nothing has changed. Does Microsoft want us to use the other browsers?

 

OK, so I just restarted, and tried a different browser, but again the multiple Internet Explorer connections appeared in Kaspersky network monitor, increasing to over 200, but the processes were not listed in process explorer, so I assume they are spawn of another process.

 

download zemana and let it clean up your system

 

With all the unwanted additions to your system, your easiest option would be to do a system restore. Find your restore point & go to the 2nd or 3rd one past the point the programs were installed. I say 2nd or 3rd because some malware embeds itself into the 1st restore point available & using that 1st point sometimes doesn't get rid of the PUP's/Malware.

System Restore Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

If this is not an option for you, AdwCleaner is good at ferreting out adware. Run it as admin & quarantine everything it finds.

AdwCleaner Download

You may also have to reset your browsers also after the rollback/scan if the problem persists.

 

Thanks for both of your replies*Smile. I installed the premium trial of Zemana anti malware and it didn't find anything. I did another test, just let Windows load with process explorer open, and Kaspersky network monitor, it seems the internet explorer processes start up regardless of what I do - the servers trace to Amazon, Akamai, even Kaspersky amongst many others. They spawn to about 200 and then drop down to nothing or just two or three in 3 minutes or so. Watching process explorer it seems there may be a connection to shellexperiencehost, searchui, searchprotocolhost exes.

I am wondering if this isn't just 'normal' behaviour for Windows 10 and the only reason I am noticing it as I am monitoring Kaspersky network monitor? As it seems those servers might be ad servers it would still be concerning as I thought I had disabled all ad stuff on Windows 10 *really. It would be good if someone else could keep an eye on their own network monitor to see if you get the same behaviour.

 

I watched kaspersky network monitor after reboot , and I did not see amazon or akamai or kaspersky.
I also don't see as many processes as you are talking about.
I see a lot of onedrive and dropbox activity.

 

Thanks a lot for checking for me. So did you get any internet explorer processes running at all? When it does run it uses up hardly any CPU so you may need to order the process list alphabetically to spot iexplore.exe. Just to clarify, there is one process in process explorer, but up to 200 connections for that process shown in Kaspersky network monitor. It seems to take at least 8 minutes after bootup for the connections to start up.

 

I don't see any such connections in Kaspersky network monitor
not sure what process explorer is. I am on KIS 2017 and I don't know where that monitor is located at or what it is.

 

Process Explorer

You can use Process Explorer to check running processes with the aid of VirusTotal.

To do this, run the program, click on Options/VirusTotal.com/Check VirusTotal.com.

Accept the terms, another column will appear with VirusTotal results listed.

 

It's basically a more advanced task manager, I have to say I didn't know about the virustotal option so thanks for that Borg*Smile. Regarding Network Monitor - do you have any data usage for internet explorer listed on the network traffic list (assuming you don't use for browsing)?

 

thanks for the tip. I guess it is like process hacker, but with VT?

 

process hacker is not showing iexplore.exe, and internet explorer activity is not showing in KL network monitor.

 

It will only run for 3 minutes or so every few hours. If you can check the Network Traffic tab (not Network Activity) on Kaspersky Network Monitor at the end of the day I'd appreciate it, thanks.