Strange folder opening on windows login

[hrrrbrwl]

This is my first post here, I've usually found the answers to my problems / questions just by searching and lurking but this one is beginning to irritate me so hopefully someone here can help.

 

2 Days ago the "Office14" folder (location: c:\Program Files x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14) started appearing after users log into Windows 7. It's not in the startup folder and it's not in any of the login scripts, it's doing it for every user on every machine on the network, be it admin, staff or student. It doesn't happen on the local admin login so it's network login related.

 

Has anyone had this happen before? I'm thinking it's not actually anything to do with Office itself, I have a feeling it could of happened to someone else but with a different folder opening on startup. The machines are locked down pretty tight, we're a special school so what students can do on the machines with a student login is pretty minimal although something always inevitably slips through I suppose. I've been trying to figure it out for 2 days now and I'm out of things to check.

 

Is there a tool that will let me log all of the events that happen during the login procedure, I don't mean event viewer (unless someone knows how to get it to tell me why that folder is opening) and enabling boot logging in msconfig is no help either as it doesn't log events like this.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated before this sends me completely bonkers.

[themightymrp]

Do you have folder redirection enabled for the desktop to a central share maybe?

 

If you right click the folder and view its properties, under the general tab does it show where the folder is actually residing?

[hrrrbrwl]

Do you have folder redirection enabled for the desktop to a central share maybe?

 

If you right click the folder and view its properties, under the general tab does it show where the folder is actually residing?

Sorry I didn't make myself very clear. The folder does not appear on the desktop as an icon, it is actually an open window displaying all of the contents of c:\Program Files x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14, so basically it's the Office14 folder opening when a user logs in.

[themightymrp]

Its an old article but something similar is mentioned here:

 

Folder Opens on Startup - Windows XP Configuration & Management

 

To do with an office search enhancement pack??

[hrrrbrwl]

Its an old article but something similar is mentioned here:

 

Folder Opens on Startup - Windows XP Configuration & Management

 

To do with an office search enhancement pack??

Just checked and I don't have the search enhancement pack installed. Lucky as I would have had to delete that folder from every machine on the network, unlucky because I still have the stupid problem...

[3s-gtech]

There are some other GP settings that could do this.

 

User Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Logon/Run these programs at user logon

 

Or, you may have GPP copying a shortcut to the Startup folder for the users' Start Menu. Do you have redirected Start Menus, and a shortcut to this folder has been placed in there?

[hrrrbrwl]

There are some other GP settings that could do this.

 

User Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Logon/Run these programs at user logon

 

Or, you may have GPP copying a shortcut to the Startup folder for the users' Start Menu. Do you have redirected Start Menus, and a shortcut to this folder has been placed in there?

I do have redirected start menus but there is no Startup folder in any of them and a search of the start menu folders does not reveal a shortcut of the office14 folder anywhere.

 

Nothing in Group Policy relating to this either, the System/logon/run is not configured.

[3s-gtech]

What happens on a PC that doesn't have Office installed at all, if you have one to try?

[hrrrbrwl]

Well mystery solved, or deepens, depending how you look at it. It's not happening any more and I haven't changed anything or found out why it was happening. Oh well, last day of term so as far as I'm concerned it's fixed (for now).

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!