Weird Windows-Related Glitch in Most of My Games

ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

So something that's been more of an annoyance than anything. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly, so here goes:

Whenever I'm in the middle of the game, sometimes the game will suddenly minimalize itself, bringing me back to the desktop. It's still running, but paused. Or it'll act LIKE it's minimalized and pause suddenly. Two examples:

During Awesomenauts, the window will suddenly minimalize in the middle of a game, forcing me to scramble to click on the icon to bring me back to the game before someone on the other team kills me.

In The Witcher 3, it'll suddenly go to the pause menu (like I hit Select to bring me to the Save/Load menu). The buttons on my controllers are completely unresponsive unless I click anywhere on the screen with my mouse. This is especially annoying when I'm in the middle of an intense battle.

Has anyone else experienced this or heard of it? I don't know if it's a Window 10 thing or what.
 
Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

So this isn't ideal and only works if you're playing on Steam, but solves a lot of this problem as a temporary measure until you can figure more out. If you're not playing on Steam, google the name of the game and "run in windowed mode".

For Steam:
Right-click the game name in the Library, choose Properties at the bottom, and then click Set Launch Options. Type "-windowed" (no quotation marks). If that doesn't work type "-sw". Usually either one works, but, you know. Give it a shot.

This forces most games through Steam to run as a window (i.e. not fullscreen) and stops a lot of the window-switching problems I've had. Your problem can probably be fixed so that you can run games fullscreen - I've usually found a way. There's obviously something larger going on, but I don't have time before bed to do more... Hopefully this works as a fix to make things playable until I have more time/someone else can help.[DOUBLEPOST=1473220560,1473220479][/DOUBLEPOST]To go back to fullscreen gaming, just follow the same steps, but delete "-windowed" or "-sw".[DOUBLEPOST=1473220651][/DOUBLEPOST]If you want to do some of your own troubleshooting, I'd google something like "Windows 10 changing window focus" or "Window switching while gaming Windows 10"[DOUBLEPOST=1473221004][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, I don't have Windows 10, but go to Control Panel and something like Ease of Access->Keyboard and disable/uncheck Sticky Keys, Filter Keys, and Toggle Keys.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

This sounds almost like you are pressing the Windows key.
Some keyboards have an option to disable it. Alternatively, you could be hitting "show desktop" which is Windows + D.

--Patrick
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

PatrThom said:
This sounds almost like you are pressing the Windows key.
Some keyboards have an option to disable it. Alternatively, you could be hitting "show desktop" which is Windows + D.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
In both instances, I'm not using the keyboard at all. Just the Xbox controller.
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

If you were using a keyboard, I would say it sounds like sticky keys, where it tries to open something when you press shift for a certain amount of time.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Vrii said:
Is it cabled? Is there a chance the cord is pressing a key when you move in certain ways?
Click to expand...
Nope, it doesn't come into contact with the keyboard at all. It's wired, but the way it's plugged in, it won't hit any keys by accident.[DOUBLEPOST=1473254641,1473254607][/DOUBLEPOST]
Ravenpoe said:
If you were using a keyboard, I would say it sounds like sticky keys, where it tries to open something when you press shift for a certain amount of time.
Click to expand...
ThatNickGuy said:
In both instances, I'm not using the keyboard at all. Just the Xbox controller.
Click to expand...
 
strawman

strawman

There's a possibility that another program is taking control of the screen for an alert or similar. Press hold down the windows key, press and release the tab key, and keep holding the windows key down. This will bring up a screen of all the currently running programs with the one that is currently in focus on top. Do this the next time the computer skips to windows and it should give you an idea of what program windows thinks should have your attention. It might not resolve the problem, but it's one possible step that might give you a clue.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
When this happens to me it's usually notifications. I'd check them to see if you have any turned on you don't care about.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
stienman said:
There's a possibility that another program is taking control of the screen for an alert or similar. Press hold down the windows key, press and release the tab key, and keep holding the windows key down. This will bring up a screen of all the currently running programs with the one that is currently in focus on top. Do this the next time the computer skips to windows and it should give you an idea of what program windows thinks should have your attention. It might not resolve the problem, but it's one possible step that might give you a clue.
Click to expand...
This is what happened to me when I experienced this same thing. I installed a citrix client that kept an icon in the system tray, and it would at random times, it turns out, grab window focus for no apparent reason, causing whatever I was doing to minimize back to desktop. Very irritating during games. I ended up getting rid of that citrix client.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
This is what happened to me when I experienced this same thing. I installed a citrix client that kept an icon in the system tray, and it would at random times, it turns out, grab window focus for no apparent reason, causing whatever I was doing to minimize back to desktop. Very irritating during games. I ended up getting rid of that citrix client.
Click to expand...
Presumably this would also happen with LogMeIn, Remote Desktop, or any of the other similar utilities.

--Patrick
 
Jay

Jay

Step 1 : MSCONFIG, Start-up, Disable everything. Reboot. Try to see if this fixes it.

Step 2 : Disable USB configuration. Go to device manager, right click on all USB controller, go to properties, advanced, "dont tell me about USB error" then click "ok"

Step 3 : Disable Ballon Tips. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307729/en-us

Step 4 : Windows mode in games as per Chad, see if this helps.

Step 5 : Open Task Manager, keep eyes on it like a hawk. Find the process that is doing this.

Step 6 : Format
 
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