my laptop has decided autonomously to run Gimp to open a HP logo on each startup...??

[dehro]

As per title, whenever I open my laptop from the turned off state or even from the sleep mode, the freeware GIMP (the free photoshop) starts running and it opens a HP logo... my laptop is a HP Pavilion running on windows 10.
I have no idea how or when this started and what happened to make it start doing this.
It's not harmful in any way other than being annoying and confusing. I can of course simply shut down the software when this occurs, but I'd much prefer to know how to stop it from happening altogether...
any ideas?
Thank you in advance.

[Fri]

Hm, It's kinda weird, but the next time you start your laptop, check what type of file the HP logo is (it might be .ico or .tiff or whatever?), most likely GIMP was set as the default file opener for that type of file, and your laptop set up to open that logo whenever you first start your laptop.

Then as addition, you can check what program automatically run at startup, and disable GIMP.

[dehro]

Hm, It's kinda weird, but the next time you start your laptop, check what type of file the HP logo is (it might be .ico or .tiff or whatever?), most likely GIMP was set as the default file opener for that type of file, and your laptop set up to open that logo whenever you first start your laptop.

Then as addition, you can check what program automatically run at startup, and disable GIMP.

I've found that indeed GIMP is the default opening software for .ico files, such as the logo in the OP.
I've changed that in order to open that kind of files with the windows photo opener.. then I rebooted the laptop.
Now GIMP stays shut, but the logo is still opened, this time using the aforementioned photo opener.
This is quicker both in opening and shut down times.. but it still means that for some reason this file really wants to be opened on startup.
Confused is me.

[snowblizz]

What I think is happening is that it's trying to set the background to a HP picture, for some reason.

It might be that you've got the the pic store in the Startmenu autostart or listed amongst the things that should be ran on boot by Windows.

It may be somekind of hangover from an earlier windows or more recent Win update changing something.

If you open the Task Manager there is a tab for "Start-up" have a check there if it tries to run the fiel in question.

Previously these were listed in advanced start-up options, apparently the Win10 one is different. Again. :(

[ve4grm]

Check if you have the icon linked, for some reason, in your Start Menu -> Startup folder?

[dehro]

I checked every iteration of startup folders, autorun or similar that I could find. It's not listed anywhere, nor does deleting the file altogether work.
Once opened, I tracked it down to the folder it's located in and deleted it.. it's back there again.

[Grinner]

Have you checked msconfig? There's list of startup items there.

[dehro]

so.. I tried pretty much everything suggested.. no luck :smallconfused:

[Grey_Wolf_c]

so.. I tried pretty much everything suggested.. no luck :smallconfused:

You could try to prevent the file from being created in the first place. Delete the file, and in its place create an empty text file with the exact same name defaulted to be opened with, say, notepad or your browser of choice. Give that file read-only permissions for all users.

Now, hopefully the process that creates and then opens that file tries, fails, and the runs the file itself, so you end up with a poor's man version of "open this program at startup", except you can pick which program that will be (I'd pick the browser, myself).

I call this approach "if you can't beat them, make 'em work for you". It is still annoying, but at least the program that opens is one you would've opened yourself anyway?

Edit: it might also provide a clue as to which process re-creates the file, if you see its error log somewhere.

GW