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Every time I start up windows vista lately, I see a random floating window. It is a tiny little window with no title, and only the resize, maximize and restore buttons. I'd post an image, but I don't have reputation here yet.

I can close it, and it does indeed go away, but I would love to figure out what it is and stop it from popping up at all. I used Autohotkey's window spy on it and all I learned is that it is a swing window, which doesn't help me out a whole lot.

Is there a good way to identify which process it belongs to and figure out how to kill it?

4 Answers 4

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Use Process Explorer, it allows you to identify the window and then you can check the properties of the process to figure out the command line used. This command line will help you determine what exactly has been launched, this helps to figure out where Java applications and scripts are located...

enter image description here

Just drag the icon over the window.

For a complete list of start-up applications, services and drivers; check Autoruns.

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Swing seems it belongs to JAVA. Look for a java(w).exe. You can also see what process it belongs to by using the task manager. Go to "tasks", right click the window and choose "switch to process", it'll show you what process it is.

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    run "msconfig" to have a look at startup applications (with java in mind)
    – Phil D.
    Feb 23, 2011 at 15:36
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I'm not too sure if this works for Java applications, but you can call up Task Manager, under the Applications tab, right-click Go to process, which highlights the offending process in the Processes tab. You can then kill it.

Task Manager, Go to Process

For Windows 10

You can call up Task Manager, under the Users tab (or Processes tab, either is fine), right-click Go to details, which highlights the offending process in the Details tab. You can then kill it.

enter image description here

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  • Not as useful with windows 10 anymore :|
    – rogerdpack
    Oct 21, 2019 at 19:51
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    @rogerdpack What do you mean? It's pretty much still the same in Win10. I've added a screenshot to show what the new menu name is.
    – Cardin
    Oct 22, 2019 at 2:26
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Another nitty tool (besides the aim in ProcessExplorer) is WinLister from Nimsoft:

scoop install sysinternals
scoop install WinLister

I have a popup taking the space & not reacting clicks, so ProcessExplorer was useless. WinLister listed all the windows with status (active/minimized), size, location - based on that info you could identify an offending app.

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