Security – How to find source process of unknown popup in Windows 7

A random popup appears in Windows 7 titled as Information with a progress bar and a clock. The window sometimes says Please wait a moment..., and the progress bar moves very slowly and disappears.

I don’t know the source of this popup. I tried to search regarding this popup on the Internet, and some people had this problem. It also has a question on Yahoo! Answers, but everyone told to scan for malware and viruses.

Is there any way to know the source process for this window/popup?

• The task manager shows nothing about this window
• The only tasks that are running are Google Chrome, etc.
• Right-click and left-click does not work on this window or its title bar.

Solution:

You can identify the application by getting Process Explorer tool from Microsoft SysInternals.

At the toolbar, locate and use the following tool:

If you drag & drop it over unknown window, its process will become highlighted in the list.

What you can do then is to right-click that process and select Check VirusTotal to see whether the image is valid and well-known.

You can also double-click the process to learn about its EXE path, parent process or company who created it.