Task manager tries to connect to the internet Options

[pandy]

Why?

I've used TinyWall for several years, but haven't really looked at all the features. I found it can show all connections it has blocked the last 5 minutes. Taskmgr.exe has been blocked more than a hundred times - in 5 minutes. Why does it try to get out at all? Obviously it doesn't hurt anything that it's blocked, not that I've noticed anyway.

Note, TinyWall isn't a firewall in the usual sense. It sits on top Windows firewall and works by simply blocking all connections except those you OK. So when you first install it there's some fiddling. I think it's great, even if you have to remember to OK all new programs, but that's quickly done. I suppose it can be used as the only FW, but I keep the Windows one running. If anyone wants to try it, please note it doesn't work together with other firewall software, just the Windows one.

This is only the top of the list. You can see it's just 2 or 3 seconds between tries.



I don't know what the System process is about either. I didn't have to OK any system processes when I installed TinyWall, so it must have a built in whitelist.

[Christian J]

I'm scared of automatic cleanup.

Why? I could understand distrust in third-party cleanup software though.

There's also a folder called AppData in there with the subdirectories Local, LocalLow and Roaming. Do you have those?

I have those as well.

Oh yes. I had 5 files. Fetched mail and now I have 931 files. 🥶

Try your other email program as well, to see if both add files. If that's the case I would suspect a Windows bug (while if it's only one email program maybe the bug is in there, though that doesn't explain all the images and PDF files).

I guess it could also be some buggy maintenance program doing this, such as third-party antivirus, indexing etc.

[pandy]

I'm scared of automatic cleanup.

Why? I could understand distrust in third-party cleanup software though.

Microsoft and I don't always agree and what should be done. The only cleanup program I've trusted was a freeware. But it want paid and became bulky.

There's also a folder called AppData in there with the subdirectories Local, LocalLow and Roaming. Do you have those?

I have those as well.

Thank you. Then I can leave that at least.

Try your other email program as well, to see if both add files. If that's the case I would suspect a Windows bug (while if it's only one email program maybe the bug is in there, though that doesn't explain all the images and PDF files).

I don't want to mess up my mail. OK, I could set it to leave the mail on the server, I guess. But it's so old now, Eudora, I'm afraid it'll mess up anyway. The one I used after that crashed beyond repair. I only have the mail.

I'll update my current program, been meaning to anyway. If that doesn't help I'll contact the author. It's that kind of program.

I guess it could also be some buggy maintenance program doing this, such as third-party antivirus, indexing etc.

I didn't use any third party AV until the previous hickup. And those run on demand, not in the background, and I have set them to only scan, not take any action. Maybe it is the email program anyway. The oldest file was from the beginning of 2023. Could be about then I updated it. I'll install the new version tomorrow. Today I deserve a night off.

[pandy]

The plot thickens. I didn't get many more files in the folder yesterday. Perhaps a hundred in total.

When I started email today I once again got a lot. So it seems to be mainly the first time email is active after a reboot. Only I don't turn the computer off, I just hibernate.

When I glanced through the files I saw at least three that aren't related to email. Notetab's two help files. But they at least exists on disk. The third was the most peculiar. An eBook (epub) with the author name misspelled. The file does exist but not under that name. The name can very well have been misspelled at some point, but I have corrected it and probably long ago. It could be I copied the file to another directory, renamed it, and deleted the original file. Notetab has moved around a bit too. Could these three be deleted files that the gremlin found? I certainly haven't sent or received any of them by email. But none of these three files is corrupt which they ought to be if they were deleted long ago.

I've bought a license for the new version of the email program and am about to install it. Either this helps or not I'll contact the author. Maybe someone else have had the same problem.

[Christian J]

When I started email today I once again got a lot. So it seems to be mainly the first time email is active after a reboot. Only I don't turn the computer off, I just hibernate.

Maybe it happens when Windows updates force a reboot?

[pandy]

But it hasn't done that in a long time.

It didn't help to update the email program. 1232 files. And it looks like the ones I last deleted is recreated. At least those three odd ones I mentioned. I don't think they were there yesterday though. I would have noticed. Especially the help files stand out. .chm files, the icon with the bright yellow question mark. And I sorted by file type when I looked through them.

Now I see the email programs ini file is also copied. And I have a new ISO file. MNF43.ISO, 54 kB. That file doesn't exist elsewhere on my computer. Only here and in the backup of odd files I made yesterday.

[pandy]

Forgot to say. I had hopes at first after installing the new version of the email program. No new files. I both fetched and sent email to provoke it. Then I made a hard reboot. And then they came.

So it seems the bulk comes after windows has loaded AND the email program is active. But some minor activity can also happen after that.

Could some kind of malware do this? With the purpose to slowly crash the computer? Or a spy program that's after email related stuff and needs to temporary store files somewhere but isn't so good at it and grabs some other files too? I'm thinking of that taskmanager.exe that TinyWall stopped from getting out. Some related program could still be active maybe.

I have scanned with three different AV and they only find files I know is OK and have been around a long time.