Frequent Desktop Icon Refreshes?

Using Win7 Pro. Recently (a few days) all the icons on my desktop refresh (blink once just like I requested a refresh) whenever I close a window, or right-click the desktop (but don't select anything from the menu), maybe other times too. They refresh every few minutes even if I don't do any of those things. I've noticed that explorer.exe pops up with 1% cpu on the Windows Task Manager list every time a refresh happens.

I haven't installed any new programs recently but some program updates have happened. The last Windows Update, other than Windows Defender definitions, happened before the unwanted refreshes started happening.

Restarting the system didn't help.

Avast full system scans and MalwareBytes scans show nothing.

Suggestions as what to look for?

-- Larry

Try a clean startup - Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup
Also get CCleaner - Tools - Startup - Context Menu - Save to text file (in order to know how it was) and disable entries.

If the issue is fixed, try enabling them back a few at a time until you can find the offending one.

Before trying a clean start I tried doing a Safe Mode startup. I didn't use F8 (I forgot that was what to use) but used ESC instead. So I exited out of that and all of a sudden the icon refreshing was gone! I had done several restarts before then but the refreshing persisted.

Hopefully the refreshing will stay gone. If not I have Safe Mode and Clean Start to try. Thanks for the info on that.

-- Larry

I'll mark this a Solved and will start a new thread if the issue returns.
--Larry

You can mark it unsolved later if you ever need, use this thread if it does. (Hopefully not :))