CODEWITHSUNDEEP
processkill-process
Jeremy
Jeremy

Reputation: 1

failed to kill a returning process

I have an invisible mspaint.exe process (no open window) that runs apparently at startup on WINDOWS XP.

I tried the usual ways to kill it, but none of them worked.

1) Task Manager: the process disappears but returns immediately. 2) Command Prompt: if I do

taskkill -f /im mspaint.exe

I receive the SUCCESS message BUT the process mspaint remains, with the same PID.

If I specify the PID number, then I also get the SUCCESS message but the process mspaint.exe remains with a new PID.

3) Process Explorer: the kill command has no effect.

There is a parent svchost.exe process that I killed but still I could not get rid of child process mspaint.exe

Any advice is welcome.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 421

Answers (1)

brettwhiteman
brettwhiteman

Reputation: 4452

Try right-clicking on mspaint.exe in the processes tab in task manager and selecting "Kill Process Tree".

It seems like it could be a virus. I suggest downloading Malware Bytes (free) and doing a scan. http://www.malwarebytes.org

Upvotes: 1

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