Exam 312-49v10 topic 1 question 759 discussion

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns Autoruns provides a comprehensive view of all auto-starting locations in Windows, including services, drivers, startup items, scheduled tasks, and more. allows investigators to identify and verify suspicious services without executing or altering them, which is critical when analyzing potentially harmful malware. In this case, since the service mimics a legitimate one and runs with SYSTEM-level privileges, running it or stopping it directly could be risky (e.g., might trigger a payload). Autoruns operates passively, meaning it doesn't modify system behavior but offers detailed insight, including the path, publisher, and command-line arguments of the service—helpful for determining if it's malicious or masquerading. It's especially effective in identifying persistence mechanisms, which is essential in malware investigations. --- Please UPVOTE!

Autoruns utility has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, and shows what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and when various built-in Windows applications such as Internet Explorer, Explorer, and media players are started.