Two start up applications "C8df" and "1"? Should I be concerned?

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Two start up applications "C8df" and "1"? Should I be concerned?

Anonymous

Good morning everyone! I have recently opened my task manager and I saw two concerning applications showing up on the startup section. I haven't touched them nor disabled them and I'm concerned on what might happen if I do? I even ran Microsoft defender to make sure I don't have any virus and it says everything is fine, but that doesn't ease my worries. Any advice?

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Answer 1

Hi Gabriel, I'm Ramesh, here to answer your query at the Microsoft Community.

The two unknown entries (a random GUID string and a number) are not malicious. A game software (e.g., "Once Human" or "Almost Human") added them, but the cleanup was not done correctly.

You should be able to delete the entries via the registry or using Microsoft's Autoruns tool

Please download "Autoruns" from Microsoft, and run it as administrator:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/...

Find the two entries shown in your screenshot and delete them.

Note:

If Autoruns doesn't see the two entries, open Task Manager and enable the two entries. Then, switch to Autoruns and click "Refresh" on the toolbar.

The entries may appear as "af_guid_xxxx" and "AF_counter_xxxx" in Autoruns or registry.

Related threads:

Task Manager - Startup Program Strange Names - Microsoft Community:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Strange Startup Apps / Files? - Microsoft Community:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...