Windows 7 full screen minimize bug thing

Hey guys, I've been having this really annoying issue with my laptop (running Win7 premium) where full screen programs will minimize automatically for no reason.

For example I load up random full screen game, it's up for a couple seconds, it minimizes, I bring it back up, it minimizes again, and so forth.

Sometimes I can get it to stay full screen by maximizing it and spamming clicks, but that doesn't always work.

It's incredibly frustrating and every solution I've found by searching has not worked or has not been applicable.

Any thoughts? Just ask if you need more info.

EDIT: also, when it starts happening a system reboot seems to fix it for a while, then it will start again for no apparent reason

Not much of an idea on this one. I do find it annoying if you hover a window on top of the little "Desktop" area on the right end of the task bar everything will minimize. This happens to me at least once a day when dragging windows from one screen to another (laptop+external monitor setup).

Are you running NVIDIA drivers or anything else that attaches itself to windows for switching monitors?

PoderOmega wrote:

Are you running NVIDIA drivers or anything else that attaches itself to windows for switching monitors?

Nope.

edit: here's a screenshot of all my running processes, if that helps anyone.
http://i.imgur.com/w4QR5.png

Are you running a program that uses toaster pop-ups? Skype or something? Sometimes such pop-ups will activate when clicked even with a full screen window having focus.

edit:
Just saw your screenshot. Your virus scanner, maybe?

edit:
Maybe you should try this?

Andy wrote:

Are you running a program that uses toaster pop-ups? Skype or something? Sometimes such pop-ups will activate when clicked even with a full screen window having focus.

edit:
Just saw your screenshot. Your virus scanner, maybe?

I have avast set up so nothing should popup with full screen programs running.
Even if it was popups from that, would it explain it minimizing over and over until a reboot?
It doesn't happen when I click or anything, it just automatically minimizes it's self over and over.

PoderOmega wrote:

Not much of an idea on this one. I do find it annoying if you hover a window on top of the little "Desktop" area on the right end of the task bar everything will minimize. This happens to me at least once a day when dragging windows from one screen to another (laptop+external monitor setup).

I think you can turn that off by right clicking it and hitting Peek at desktop.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

For example I load up random full screen game

Is it any and/or every game, or a selection of games? Can you give examples of which games are doing it, and if some games don't do it what are they.

Scratched wrote:
FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

For example I load up random full screen game

Is it any and/or every game, or a selection of games? Can you give examples of which games are doing it, and if some games don't do it what are they.

I've yet to find a game that does not do it.
Games I've seen it do it with:
League of Legends, Beat Hazard, Left 4 Dead 1/2, TF2, Evil Genius, Crayon Physics, Plants vs Zombies, Sanctum, Zombie Driver, Duels of the Planeswalkers, Civ5, DoW2, World of Goo, Stronghold, and more.

Does it happen even if you start the game the very first thing, before you run anything else?

I see in that list there that you have the Google Crash Handler running. I'm thinking maybe Windows believes it needs to bring something to your attention, and is minimizing your games to do so. Not running anything else will help isolate that to being something in Windows itself, as opposed to some other app clamoring for focus. Do you see anything in the Action Center about something that needs fixing?

No issues in the action center.
As I said before, when I reboot it doesn't start doing it for a while. I'll try disabling the crash handler next time it starts up.

edit: nope, wasn't that

Danjo Olivaw wrote:
PoderOmega wrote:

Not much of an idea on this one. I do find it annoying if you hover a window on top of the little "Desktop" area on the right end of the task bar everything will minimize. This happens to me at least once a day when dragging windows from one screen to another (laptop+external monitor setup).

I think you can turn that off by right clicking it and hitting Peek at desktop.

Thanks, I feel kind of stupid for not doing this earlier.

Fedora, you could try disabling that "Synaptics Touchpad Enhancement" program. Maybe one of the "enhancements" is to minimize everything? I would also check your Windows Event log (System and Application) around the same time as the minimize event for any clues.

My next suggestion is a longshot, but you could try using Process Monitor to idenitify the process that is doing the minimizing. You can filter down to an Event Class of "Process" and see if any Images (DLLs or EXEs) were started, and if any threads were Created or Exited around the same time as the minimize event. You'll get the phonebook, but it may yield a clue.

EDIT: I just thought of something else. Make sure your "Windows" key (next to the Left Alt key) on your keyboard isn't sticky or overly sensitive. Maybe you are bumping that and hitting the D key, which minimizes everything. You could try disabling the key all together, but I've never tried it. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=disable+windows+key

Disabling the Synaptics thingy disables my touchpad.
The bug only minimizes the game, it doesn't minimize all programs to desktop.
Actually it really doesn't minimize it at all, now that I look at it. It looks like it minimizes but it stays highlighted in the taskbar until I hit something else.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Disabling the Synaptics thingy disables my touchpad.
The bug only minimizes the game, it doesn't minimize all programs to desktop.

Sorry, I misunderstood that. Either way, I would still try Process Monitor and the Windows Event Log around the time the issue occurs. Windows Event Log for sure, that's easy to check.

Don't know if you implied this or not, but does it also do this when you play games in windowed mode? Wonder if trying that might reveal some clue.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Don't know if you implied this or not, but does it also do this when you play games in windowed mode? Wonder if trying that might reveal some clue.

It does not.

Boy, that one's tough. I'm inclined to think maybe it's a bug in the mobile chipset and/or the driver.

Don't suppose you happen to have a spare laptop drive you could try a fresh Windows install on, just to see if anything changes? I don't suggest doing that to the main drive, because rebuilding after a new install is so painful if it doesn't fix the problem, but if you've got a spare, or one you can pull from an old laptop, it might be worth the time.

Na, no spare.

Malor wrote:

Boy, that one's tough. I'm inclined to think maybe it's a bug in the mobile chipset and/or the driver.

Don't suppose you happen to have a spare laptop drive you could try a fresh Windows install on, just to see if anything changes? I don't suggest doing that to the main drive, because rebuilding after a new install is so painful if it doesn't fix the problem, but if you've got a spare, or one you can pull from an old laptop, it might be worth the time.

Or do a drive image to an external, then a clean install, then a restore if the problem still exists on the clean install.

EDIT: Or not if you don't have another drive. Should have read down before posting.

Anything in the Windows Event Log?

How about MIRC? Is that always on? Could that be stealing focus if people are typing constantly in whatever room you have open?

PoderOmega wrote:

Anything in the Windows Event Log?

Event log looks clear.

Gaald wrote:

How about MIRC? Is that always on? Could that be stealing focus if people are typing constantly in whatever room you have open?

Na, it does it when IRC is off as well.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:
Andy wrote:

Are you running a program that uses toaster pop-ups? Skype or something? Sometimes such pop-ups will activate when clicked even with a full screen window having focus.

edit:
Just saw your screenshot. Your virus scanner, maybe?

I have avast set up so nothing should popup with full screen programs running.
Even if it was popups from that, would it explain it minimizing over and over until a reboot?
It doesn't happen when I click or anything, it just automatically minimizes it's self over and over.

Did you try completely disabling Avast notifications? Worth a shot, at least. (I read that full screen detection could be wonky at times).

BTW, this issue seems to pop up a lot. (One of the main culprits seems to be an old version of AVG (which you clearly don't use)). A random thread mentioned a spike in network usage at the exact moment the game minimizes which would be quite strange (and unlikely).

My big annoyance with Win 7 is it frequently minimizes with the notification window about asking me to turn off Aero due to low performance (or reduce colors, I can't remember exactly). This with a 2600K @ 4.4Ghz and a 6950 running overclocked with the 6970 shaders unlocked.

I wish there was a way to permanently block that. But that one you'd know what happened.

Andy wrote:
FedoraMcQuaid wrote:
Andy wrote:

Are you running a program that uses toaster pop-ups? Skype or something? Sometimes such pop-ups will activate when clicked even with a full screen window having focus.

edit:
Just saw your screenshot. Your virus scanner, maybe?

I have avast set up so nothing should popup with full screen programs running.
Even if it was popups from that, would it explain it minimizing over and over until a reboot?
It doesn't happen when I click or anything, it just automatically minimizes it's self over and over.

Did you try completely disabling Avast notifications? Worth a shot, at least. (I read that full screen detection could be wonky at times).

BTW, this issue seems to pop up a lot. (One of the main culprits seems to be an old version of AVG (which you clearly don't use)). A random thread mentioned a spike in network usage at the exact moment the game minimizes which would be quite strange (and unlikely).

Yeah, it does it with Avast completely disabled.

MannishBoy wrote:

My big annoyance with Win 7 is it frequently minimizes with the notification window about asking me to turn off Aero due to low performance (or reduce colors, I can't remember exactly). This with a 2600K @ 4.4Ghz and a 6950 running overclocked with the 6970 shaders unlocked.

I wish there was a way to permanently block that. But that one you'd know what happened.

Disabled visual themes, still does it.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Disabled visual themes, still does it.

Yeah, didn't think that was it. Like I said it's pretty clear that that box is there telling you what's wrong and asking for you to respond.

I just realized your screenshot doesn't really show all processes. The box on the bottom isn't checked. (I don't remember it being a checkbox on Windows 7... isn't that a Vista / XP thing?)

Maybe post a video of it happening with your hands on the keyboard and mouse? Perhaps an eagle eyed goodjer would pick up on something you have missed. Might even make it easier for you yourself to spot a problem.

Otherwise sounds like it's time to try some random things that might not sound relevant. First, has it done this ever since you got the laptop? If not, can you system restore to a date before it began? Did you install anything or any Windows updates the day of or before it began? Does it happen if using an external keyboard? Or if using an external mouse? What about if you connect to an external monitor and play in full screen on a single screen with the other showing the desktop?

When I was having something like this happen, it turned out to be software updates running. I forget what updater it was, though. Possibly AVG. Possibly the stupid InstallShield software update thing that no software updates are ever actually released through.

Anyway, it popped me out of whatever game I was playing, without popping any window up. It was driving me out of my gourd until I figured out what it was. But: It only happened at certain times of day, which is how I figured out it must be a scheduled thing. So if this happens to you all the time, I really don't know.

BUMP!
Any more thoughts?
I have an idea that it may be linked to sleep mode as it has no problems after booting it up at first and seems to occur after waking it up from standby. I haven't done any real tests on this but maybe somebody knows if there would be anything in the standby function that would cause this.

I'll do some testing with that tonight.

Look for the java update service ... jusched.exe? Maybe.

I usually only see this in L4D2 and *usually* the java updater has popped up. Sometimes though, it is the Steam update window tryin to sell me new games.

Only ever steam games, usually L4D2, usually jusched.exe.

Oh, there is something in the power profiles that can do odd stuff.