(no subject)

[arethinn]

Microsoft Excel decided yesterday that it should begin running at startup, and I can't figure out why or how to get it to stop. Naturally, it's not actually in the startup apps list or Startup folder, so I'm baffled as to how it's getting invoked. Any ideas? (Win 10 64-bit, Office 365 Pro Plus click-to-run subscription product through my work - more specifically, "Microsoft Excel for Office 365 MSO (16.0.11929.20708) 32-bit")

Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

Three possible answers I can think of:

One, there's a couple of startup tags in the Windows Registry that can cause apps (and daemons and drivers) to run on boot or login. That wouldn't be visible on the desktop or the usual folders.

Two, sometimes a "helper" app starts up and runs another program, which can include desktop apps. Have you downloaded any new stuff this week? Those helpers are not always friendly (Trojan horses are possible).

Three, there might be a document or spreadsheet file that's being called on startup, invoking Excel by implication to display it. Might even be a helper app invoking the file, which in turn runs Excel.

[arethinn]

Didn't happen again today (on the one hand, it's cool if the problem just goes away, but also, annoying when weird behavior is intermittent!), but:

1. I'll keep that idea in mind.

2. Can't think of anything this week that wasn't known-good, mostly updates to already installed software.

3. Hmm, I highly doubt it.