Fix this laptop?

Nerdgasm. 😀

Because it was using too many resources ?

… was it trying to connect to a network resource that was being a bit tardy in responding?

Trying to get US Netflix lol 🙂

disgruntled sysadmin that’s recently left? Look for another VBS that runs itself, queries AD for comoputers, copies itself to any that are reachable and repeats.

Some IT bod has been trying to limit the users internet access to less than 5 minutes a day as petty revenge for the user being a bit of a nobber?

The digital version of a mechanical hiding a marble inside the door of a “difficult” customer’s car.

disgruntled sysadmin that’s recently left?

It’s a home machine. No-one else has used it in months.

What happens after you disable the task and wait (from a safe distance)?

Killing the task, of course, fixes the issue. I knew as soon as I saw it (and kicked myself for not thinking of it earlier).

Set-Service -Name Schedule -StartupType Disabled

return to browsing ebay

Is the task terminating some active content – desktop, widgest etc?

Was it supposed to be iexplorer.exe being killed to feebly attempt to stop people from browsing for long periods? Or nudge you to use another browser?

It was literally ‘taskkill /f explorer.exe’ (may have had other switches, I can’t remember).

Though, credit should also go to Molgrips who was on the same lines

I doubt I’d have looked at scheduled tasks – who the hell uses those? 🙂

The question of why such a thing exists is far more bizarre tbh.

Is it ransomeware of some kind?

Windows explorer verses, not IE

Silly little trojan/virus by the sounds of it, designed for maximum annoyance but no real damage.

Windows explorer verses, not IE

Yes, I was wondering if it was a poor typo

Was it designed to stop other members of the family using the puter? the person who installed it knows to kill the task but to everyone else the machine is unusable. Pretty silly though

Has the owners cat ever been to Sub-Saharan Africa?

Can you wipe it and install Linux? I think that will fix it.

Don’t make me hurt you.

You’re all missing something. I asked how / why, perhaps that’s the wrong question?

They’ve been browsing those Danish “art” websites havent they?

That wasn’t wallpaper paste sticking the keys down, either

User has watched The Manchurian Candidate too many times 🙂

Was the task/batch file combo created for a specific reason? – Rather than a fat finger/wrong script issue?

^^ was explorer getting in the way of something? A game maybe?

You’re all missing something. I asked how / why, perhaps that’s the wrong question?

The user did it himself?

The c: location certainly points to inept programming userness.

Or a prank from a mate?

Agreed, it looks to me like the user did it. Just not sure why!!?

I guess they must have had admin privs to create in the root of C

“why there?” I ponder – not “usually” a location for a non techy user to use – many things would default to one of the librarys.

“why there?”

So they don’t have to remember (or know) to quote the path to avoid issues with spaces in the directory names? On a home edition of Windows you can pretty much do what you like in any part of the filesystem IIRC! Can’t imagine *NIX allowing any old user to drop a file in / 😉

If you open Task Scheduler as admin, what is in the Author column for this particular job? Is the author the same as the (main) user?

Who’s the Owner (security) of the .vbs file?

I’ll repeat something I said earlier.

It’s a home machine. No-one else has used it in months.

Yet the ‘fault’ only manifested a couple of weeks back…?

If you open Task Scheduler as admin, what is in the Author column for this particular job? Is the author the same as the (main) user?

Who’s the Owner (security) of the .vbs file?

I didn’t think to check TBH. There’s only one user account on the laptop though (and it was something lame like “user,” presumably an OEM preconfiguration). EDIT – “Owner” I think it was.

Erm.

Has Windows Explorer been set to launch each folder in a separate process, so basically “loads” of explorer.exe processes are created… and this task is to hoof them all in the slats?

Or something’s spawning multiple explorer.exe?….

Straws! My straws! They slip thru my fingers!…

millennium bug.

Are we to presume it’s the user/owner wot dunnit?

There seem to be two steps configured (.vbs then .bat) – wouldn’t just the .bat have been sufficient?

Why might I want explorer to be terminated (and not restart)? An obscure way of stopping something else happening? Gaslighting someone else? Danger**** timer?

What’s the relationship between work colleague and laptop owner?

Your colleague is testing you and you’re about to be initiated into some secretive team / cult / mission and flown to a distant world to become a hero like in the Last Starfighter.

Are we to presume it’s the user/owner wot dunnit?

I don’t believe so. It’d be a nonsense to do that knowingly and then wonder why it was playing up?

There seem to be two steps configured (.vbs then .bat) – wouldn’t just the .bat have been sufficient?

IIRC it can be awkward to get the syntax just right when scheduling batch files, you need to invoke command.com /c to launch them. I’m assuming this was a workaround (though I’d have thought launching external scripts from VB required greater knowledge than scheduling a task).

What’s the relationship between work colleague and laptop owner?

They’re friends. The colleague is a techie, she was the one who advised her to throw MBAM at it.

Your colleague is testing you and you’re about to be initiated into some secretive team / cult / mission and flown to a distant world to become a hero like in the Last Starfighter.

Initiate Death Blossom?

It’d be a nonsense to do that knowingly and then wonder why it was playing up?

Badly phrased Q. on my part- I was guessing the owner of the machine had done it, but the user (your colleague) wanted the help to fix it.