What is dwmstsk.dll? Not found on starting windows

When I start Windows I get a message from RunDLL about not able to load this dll because it is not found. It is supposed to be in <user>\AppData\Local\dwmstsk.dll.

This is a location where dll's should normally not be located (for security reasons). Of course, it might be that McAffee (my antivirus program) has disabled it becuse of that, but it would be nice to know what process is trying to use this dll.

Update:

I did a search on the dll in registry, and it was registered with rundll.exe to startup with windows. It was in a string entry named Ihevagarobifama.

awe

Posted 2010-09-15T18:23:06.340

Reputation: 1 009

Answers

Sounds like something to do with the Desktop Windows Manager (dwm), the process in Vista/7 that's responsible for the new aero effects. But beyond that I can't tell you much. Have you installed anything that might try to add effects to Windows?

Joel Coehoorn

Posted 2010-09-15T18:23:06.340

Reputation: 26 787

No I haven't installed anything new for a very long time. This just suddenly appeared. It makes sense that it might have something to do with Aero, because yesterday, all Aero style suddenly disappeared after a period of sleep mode. It came up again when I re-booted (but the error still was there). – awe – 2010-09-17T12:50:07.510

The only new I can think of, is if McAffee automatic update has introduced some new rules that suddenly affect this dll. – awe – 2010-09-17T12:53:42.523

Sounds like you were infected with malware and something cleaned up the dll without cleaning the call to it.

Autoruns should be able to help you disable this it ease. Just be careful with Autoruns if you have not used it before, don't go disabling everything or the system won't boot. Find the call to that dll and uncheck it, easy as that.

David Remy

Posted 2010-09-15T18:23:06.340

Reputation: 1 899

Well, this is also my first thought, but not knowing, it could also be something valid stuff that McAffee has disabled just because it is located in the users AppData folder. This is why I asked this question, to get a concrete answer about what it actually is, not just a general guess... – awe – 2010-09-17T12:44:07.803