Solved Open programs minimizing randomly

[BSeanD]

Hi Guys,

One of our Windows 7 64bit machines is randomly minimizing open programs. I've not encountered this before and the Google search results come up with solutions for games only.
I'll give and example;

I'm updating flash at present and it has, without my intervention, minimized itself 3 times in the past 5 minutes. This will happen to all programs, Microsoft and Third Party.

Any idea what's happening here?


Sean

 

[BSeanD]

Does anyone have at least some idea? Wild stabs in the dark more than welcome.

Sean

 

[oscer1]

Hi would help if you told us if this is a laptop or desktop. this is going to be a stab in the dark but disconnect the keyboard and see if doing same thing.

 

[Mellon Head]

Have you scanned for malware recently?

I second the keyboard idea. A stuck key might cause problems like this, too.

 

[BSeanD]

It's a Sony VPCL229FG desktop. I've turned the touch screen function off btw, not sure if that will help.
One other thing of note, when the user turns the computer on of a morning the desktop icons are sometime very large.

 

[BSeanD]

Have you scanned for malware recently?

I second the keyboard idea. A stuck key might cause problems like this, too.

Yeah, I've used Malwarebytes and adwcleaner.

 

[oscer1]

It's a Sony VPCL229FG desktop. I've turned the touch screen function off btw, not sure if that will help.
One other thing of note, when the user turns the computer on of a morning the desktop icons are sometime very large.

sounds like you are using windows 8 on that computer. sounds like they are booting to safe mode when the icons are very large.

 

[BSeanD]

It's a Sony VPCL229FG desktop. I've turned the touch screen function off btw, not sure if that will help.
One other thing of note, when the user turns the computer on of a morning the desktop icons are sometime very large.

sounds like you are using windows 8 on that computer. sounds like they are booting to safe mode when the icons are very large.

No it's a windows 7 machine, 64bit, and it's not going into safe mode.

 

[oscer1]

have you checked the file system? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[ShoTTaS]

Try unchecking all non-microsoft services except antivirus on your System Configuration.
Maybe there are services running on background that causes your issue.

 

[BSeanD]

I'm getting the user to turn off his bluetooth keyboard and use a corded usb keyboard. I'll let you know how I go.

 

[oscer1]

ok but cant hurt to check the file system too.

 

[BSeanD]

ok but cant hurt to check the file system too.

I've just run it now and it's come back clean. I'll keep working on it but may not be able to get to the machine until the weekend when it's not being used.

 

[BSeanD]

I'm going to give CCleaner a go, third time lucky.

 

[BSeanD]

Ok, I've let the machine run all weekend after running CCleaner, which came up clean. I have disable the VAIO Gate software and the VAIO updater to see what happens.
I've only just turned the updater off as the user told me the minimizing was still happening.

Sean

 

[oscer1]

Did you do a clean boot? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135/