Possible causes of web page opening at same time every day?

My general question is, what would cause my Windows 7 PC to open a web page automatically at the same time every day, or, what can I check to find out why this is happening? (And therefore be able to prevent it.)

My specific problem: Every day at 16:45 (BST) my PC automatically opens slashdot.org. I can't think of anything I changed or installed just before it started happening. It is a work PC so it may have been updated remotely somehow, but there's no business reason for this to happen.

I have checked the following things without finding anything.

changed default browser from Firefox to Chrome, it still happens - the page appears in the default browser. I don't use Chrome much so I haven't configured it; so don't think it is a common plugin they both use.
checked Task Scheduler for anything happening around 16:45, nothing.
tried "at" command, nothing scheduled there.
searched registry for "slashdot" without finding anything.
googled for a way to find out if Firefox can log where requests to open a web page came from - without success.

lessthanideal

Posted 2015-06-25T10:11:03.387

Reputation: 670

Are you saying it loads the website in what ever the default browser is? Or that it always opens in a specific browser – Dave – 2015-06-25T10:15:41.863

@Dave The former - whatever the default browser is, that's where it opens the page. - Edited the question to clarify. – lessthanideal – 2015-06-25T16:05:01.083

Answers

Check the event viewer (win+r -> eventvwr.msc) for related events.

I saw that this is a work PC, so it could be pushed out via GOP (as in this question), but unless the IT department is trying to make people more technical or there's been some error, it would be strange for this to be set by them.

bertieb

Posted 2015-06-25T10:11:03.387

Reputation: 6 181

1Ah-ha: in the Security section of Event viewer I see a process ID starting the browser that (from task manager) I find is Syncplicity.exe. I don't see what business that tool has opening this link, but I'll disable it, see if it happens tomorrow, and report back. – lessthanideal – 2015-06-25T16:16:06.157

1@lessthanideal How very strange! I'd say Syncplicity has absolutely no business opening an arbitrary URL, /. or not. Can't see much that would qualify, my bet is on a misconfiguration somewhere. Looking forward to hearing the result tomorrow! – bertieb – 2015-06-25T16:30:18.327

1It was Syncplicity. I can't discover why it does it, and can't find a way to block it either, so I have resorted to this pentadactyl autocommand to instantly close it again. autocmd PageLoadPre slashdot.org tabclose – lessthanideal – 2015-06-26T16:38:39.350

1Thanks for the follow up :) Maybe it's worth firing an email to Syncplicity to find out? If it can open slashdot.org it can open autodownloadmalware.ru. Maybe flag it up to IT? On the other hand, you've found a workaround so no harm no foul for now. – bertieb – 2015-06-26T17:09:29.560