clicking on partially obscured window to make it active does not work

tr888 · 17 Sep 2012

PROBLEM1
Sometimes, for no apparent reason, it becomes impossible to click on a partially obscured window to make it the active window; it's as if the window in the foreground has "gone modal" on me.

PROBLEM2
Conversely, sometimes a partially obscured window will become the active window and come to the foreground even if I have not clicked on it.

PROBLEM3
Sometimes when I'm in a browser (ANY browser, not just a particular one), and click the back button, the browser goes back, as it should, but then after a couple of seconds will return to the page I had just been looking it, as if it had a mind of its own.

There is a long thread on Technet about this, with many people reporting the problem as early as 2009 in Vista. I'm running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. I hope there are some good ideas here on this forum, as these problems are making my system unusable, because they happen every few minutes! Arrrgh.

These problems happen in normal mode as well as Safe Mode.

To temporarily fix the problem, I must CTRL-ALT-DELETE and then click CANCEL to return to the desktop.

Here's what I have done to troubleshoot:
1. Bought a new wireless mouse and new wireless keyboard.
1a. Tried a new wired USB mouse.
2. Checked for new device drivers.
3. Run ASUS M/B diagnostics. All's well according to them.
4. Scanned for viruses (using two different A/V programs one after the other, not installed simultaneously)
5. Restored to a restore-point from a month ago, before the problem started happening.
6. Made sure none of the USB devices is participating in Power Management.
7. Disabled/uninstalled Antivirus.
8. Made sure that the mouse settings are normal (hovering-only does not bring a window forward; you have to click)

Carl Lawrence · 17 Sep 2012

Do you have any programs running in the background?

Ztruker · 17 Sep 2012

Create a new account and see if the problem occurs there. If not then you can copy everything over from the old account, test and make sure all is well then delete the old one.

You can use Windows Easy Transfer to transfer your profiles and settings to a new account:

Go to Start –> type Easy Transfer –> Click Windows Easy Transfer in the search results.
You will get a welcome message to Windows Easy Transfer. Click Next.
Choose a different partition or internal hard drive, external hard disk or USB flash drive. Can't be the same drive you are transferring from (the "old computer").
Select This is my old computer.
Check the box before your current user account, and click Next.
You can input a password if you want.
Click Save to save the transfer file. The transfer file will be a single file with the extension .MIG. Please remember the location.
Create a new account via Control Panel - User Accounts.
Log off the current account and log on the new account.
Open Windows Easy transfer again and click This is my New Computer.
Choose "Yes, open the file" to navigate to the .MIG file.
Check the box before your old account, then click the Advanced Options above the Transfer button, then you choose which user account you want to transfer.
Click Save and Transfer. Now, you can see what are the files that were transferred.

Test if everything works correctly in the new account now. If yes you can delete the old account via User Accounts.

If not, please delete the new account via User Accounts. Go back to step 8, and repeat the step 9 and 10, then check the box before your old account, and click on the Customize button next to this old account, and uncheck the box before Windows Settings, then click the Transfer button.

tr888 · 18 Sep 2012

Carl Lawrence said:

Do you have any programs running in the background?

Nothing that's consuming any CPU.