A wild *something* appears... (then runs away)

I've been noticing something lately on my desktop, running Windows 7 Home Premium on my "NOTBULLDOZER" rig. Occasionally, I will see a new window, or program, or something appear in the taskbar. Sometimes I will even notice something flash on the screen. However, it happens so fast that's all I can tell you. It's just for a split second so by the time I notice it, it's already gone. I can blink and completely miss it.

This happens at least once every day/every user session. I haven't thought to look at the times when it occurs but I will start doing that. Is there any way to view a log of what programs or whatever have opened and closed on your computer?

I just want to know what that... that thing is.

It's the alien, moving through the vents!! Stay quiet!

Err, uh, I mean, have you tried checking with autoruns? You might recognize the offender if it's something really foreign looking. I'm sure there's a way to do exactly what you said somewhere in the event viewer, but I have no idea how.

event viewer is your best friend right now. you could also run some programs like malwarebytes and some anti virus programs.

I would be looking at some sort of malware as the culprit. Here is my list for finding and killing malware:

Mbam, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/malwarebytes-anti-exploit/

Hitman Pro, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/hitmanpro/

AdwCleaner, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

JRT, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/

RKill, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/

TDSSKiller, http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/tdsskiller/

before going through all this stuff... go to scheduled tasks and see if theres anything in there lol

Same phenomenon with me. However, 90% of the time I see the "flash" is here on this forum, so there's nothing to worry about. Still, I'm curious, too. Cue the opening jingle for "The Twilight Zone".

rpjkw11, what browser are you using? I use Google Chrome.

That being said, I generally have Chrome open with a few tabs, usually OCF, Facebook, and one or two other sites I frequently visit. I don't typically visit anywhere else though. I haven't had trouble with malware in a loooooooooooooong time, however that doesn't mean I haven't accidentally clicked a bad link on accident every once in a while. Some of those malware-cleaners I've never heard of, so I'll give them a go.

Nothing in scheduled tasks seems to be coinciding. I said I didn't really know when it happened, but last night before posting this it happened right ahead of making this thread, at about 8:30 PM. Nothing appears to be scheduled at that exact time, there is a couple of updaters scheduled for about 10 minutes before I noticed it happen and about 3 minutes after. Also, event viewer isn't showing anything happening at that time either.

You can trust pretty much anything from that site. Some of the scanners are meant to be run from your desktop. Just read the directions.

I'm using the latest Firefox.