Desktop-Folder-Window just randomly pops up

ursdiego · 14 Dec 2011

Hi there! I got to this post googling for a solution for my system. I have almost the same issue, just that it does NOT affect my computer on startup.

I get exactly this Desktop-Folder-Window just randomly then and when. It pops up in the middle of the work. It puts itself over the active window. It does not seem to be related to any open software or any particular user action, its really just random...

Rather annoying...

Sometimes it does not happen for a while, and then, however, it starts again. We talk about 1 new Window popping up in 5 minutes or so, sometimes more, sometimes less.

As it does not happen when starting, in my case at least, its probably not a startup-entry, as it was suggested in the previous posts.

Really weird...!

Aero Peek is off, as I prefer to use the old fashioned windows classic theme.

Thanks for any useful help!

koolkat77 · 14 Dec 2011

I'm not sure but I had a similar pop up problem a year back. like numerous amounts of my computer would open,sometimes calculator & windows media player & internet explorer too. I scanned for viruses and found nothing. I even cried an entire day thinking someone was trying to hack my computer. After some searches in Google, I came to know that it was a keyboard malfunction causing the windows to pop open themselves every time. You could try turning of your computer, unplugging the keyboard for a while. also, try a different keyboard and see if stuffs still pop up. hope this helps some.

edit: could you post a screen shot of your windows too?

ursdiego · 14 Dec 2011

Thank you, koolkat77!

It happens to be a notebook, so plugging off the keyboard is not an option.

However, I change keyboard, as I use a usb-docking-station (with external keyboard, lan, display) at work. And not only, but mainly, the popup-issue happens, when I am at home, with no docking station plugged in.

Right now, I am at work, and the pop up is quiet, but I will do the screenshot when it happens next time. However, somebody had a similar issue about a year ago, and he posted a screenshot here: A window with the desktop pops up when I start the comp - which looked pretty much the same as mine.

Cheers! Urs

koolkat77 · 14 Dec 2011

could be a program causing this to ~ try this: Start -> Run -> msconfig -> Startup -> Disable All -> ok -> restart and then enabled them one at a time until you find which is causing the problem.

ursdiego · 14 Dec 2011

Hello!

Thank you! As I said, I doubt its a startup problem, as the popup does not appear at startup, but randomly after that. However, I will give it a try. Here comes the screenshot:

koolkat77 · 14 Dec 2011

Thank you! As I said, I doubt its a startup problem, as the popup does not appear at startup, but randomly after that. However, I will give it a try. Here comes the screenshot:

thanks for the screenshot., do post back.

stubbyhs · 14 Dec 2011

Do you have any other devices plugged in? Are there any processes running that you don't know what they are?

You could try running in safe mode to see if it happens there.

If it is a malfunctioning keyboard you could try disabling the built-in keyboard to see if it is that.

ursdiego · 14 Dec 2011

... what I found out now: If I am at home and boot the computer, it won't happen. However, when I come home (where the notebook is not wired to anything) from office (where I use the usb docking station) and start the computer from hybernation, it will start happening all the time until I reboot. So it might have something to do with the "Kensington USB docking station", that has basically bridges for USB2->VGA, USB2->LAN and a incorporated usb sound card as well as a usb hub in there. So quite a number of drivers that get active, and maybe don't get desactivated when plugging out the docking station. A bit many drivers to troubleshoot them one by one... Annoying anyway, as I don't want to reboot all the time - i usually keep a big number of files open to continue my work wherever I go... However, maybe all this may give one of you experts an idea where the issue is to be located.

To Stubbyhs: Well yes, of course there are many processes running I don't know... I am a lawyer, not a windows engeneer... and I guess, among lawyers I am quite a bit talented, IT-wise... but not enough to understand really everything that happens in the background of my notebook. And already Windows, among with the sony vaio stuff, start a large number of services that I don't really know.

RichardDL · 26 Jun 2015

I've had exactly this problem of desktop windows randomly popping up ever since being forced to use W7 a year ago. Today I'm running a program and the problem is happening every few seconds. The program was written on XP, never had the problem there, and this is the first time running on W7. The program makes a query to remote SQL database and writes to text files. It has a GUI and puts text in box there as well. At the moment it's running in the VB6 dev IDE. If I let the program run at full speed, the desktop window pops-up about every 5 seconds. If I put a 700 mS delay in the program loop that avoids the problem. 500 mS is not enough. If I step through the program slowly the problem never happens. The fault is happy to re-use the same desktop window, so if I make it as small as possible, park it out of the way, the focus simply jumps to it.

Can anyone explain this stupid behaviour?

RichardDL · 27 Jun 2015

@Stevebordelon "Restore previous folder windows at login" is not ticked. Don't understand your registry item, think the link is wrong. (can you edit posts in this forum? - yes)