Search box keeps launching on boot

[pioneerx01]

The visual aid: press Win+F if you have Win7 machine. That is the search box that I keep getting.

What is happening: Every time I boot into an account (any account, even new ones) search box launches 2-30 times at once. But once I close them they do not come back until next boot

What I tried: Full scan with HitMan Pro, Microsoft Security Essentials, Malewarebytes and TDSKiller. All came negative. I disabled everything from start up and verified it in registry. I tried creating a new account. I stopped all but Microsoft services. I ran Uniblue Registry Cleaner. I ran sfc.exe. I have also tried disabling windows search from features, but that opened up another can of worms.

No the keys are not stuck and system restore is not possible due to age of this issue (that is what you get for not calling me earlier)

Any ideas what so ever?
Thanks

 

[Mavrickx888]

That is an interesting problem. I'm assuming since you cleared everything from Start up (via registry/msconfig) there is also nothing in the "Start up" folder (C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup for specific users and C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup for all users).

Have you looked to see if the "Restore previous folder windows at login" feature is disabled? It should be located under Tools > Folder Options > View. Could be that somehow that option got turned on, a bunch of search boxes got opened, then the computer got shut down. It's a long shot, but worth a look.

 

[pioneerx01]

Hmm, did not look there; but it is doubtful. (I am no longer by the computer in question). Nothing is running when you shut down/restart, so nothing should pop up even if the feature was enabled. Plus, wouldn't this be set back to default (so not enabled) when you create a new account?

 

[Mavrickx888]

Nothing is running when you shut down/restart, so nothing should pop up even if the feature was enabled. Plus, wouldn't this be set back to default (so not enabled) when you create a new account?

I would assume so as well... it's definitely an interesting problem.

When you get back to your problem computer, try going into the registry and looking for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. There should be two keys in the list; Shell and Userinit. Make sure Shell says "explorer.exe" and Userinit says "C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe," and nothing else (So long as the drive holding the OS is C:\ of course). If they don't, then replace them as you see fit.

On a side note: Does the computer in question happen to be an Acer?

 

[pioneerx01]

I will check those two registry locations out and see if they are OK. I was hoping that Uniblue Registry Cleaner would take care of stuff like that, since I am not too registry savvy.
No, the laptop is Toshiba