Programs minimize by them selfs.

[Data]

Hi all, great forum and lots of good info here.
I tried to search for my problem, but couldn't find anything relevant.

Now to my problem and what I have done so far, to try and solve it, with no success.

Every 30min on the second (yes, I used a stop watch) what ever window is viewed gets deselected. e.g. if I play a game (any game) it is minimized to the taskbar, I can click on it and it maximizes and plays like nothing ever happened until 30 min later. If I watch a movie on youtube in full screen, it changes to a normal window.
If I don't do anything with no window open, the screen flickers for a split second.

I installed W7 Ultimate 64bit (upgrate version) on a drive that used to have WinXP 64 bit (which worked fine) on it. I formated and did a new install. I have another drive with Vista 64 and this problem never happened and when I boot Vista, the problem doesn't happen.

So, I guess I can eliminate failing hardware.

I ran spyware and antivirus programs and nothing was found.
I watched task manager for hours, which ever program/window was the top/selected one, spiked to the top for a split second. I closed everything I possibly could, but it didn't change a thing.
I opened the startup manager and deselected almost everything, still no changes.
I also viewed the event log, trying to find something that happens every 30 min, but couldn't find anything.
I know, I could just reinstall W7, since I still use my Vista, but I rather find out why Win7 is doing this and learn something in the process.

Thank you for any help you can give.

 

[wallyinnc]

Welcome to the Forums, data
Check if you have any scheduled task (right click My Computer, Manage, Task Scheduler) and see if there is somethinkg that could be causing it

 

[Zidane24]

Are you by any chance activating Aero Shake?

Click on a Windows Border (Title Bar) and shake the window...they all minimize

 

[Data]

Welcome to the Forums, data
Check if you have any scheduled task (right click My Computer, Manage, Task Scheduler) and see if there is somethinkg that could be causing it

I turned off all tasks (defrag, backup, virus etc) and back on, no difference.
There is nothing I can see in task scheduler.

Are you by any chance activating Aero Shake?

Click on a Windows Border (Title Bar) and shake the window...they all minimize

I'm not touching anything, when it gets close to the 30 min, I just sit back and watch and see it happen.

 

[torrentg]

If it really happens exactly to the second as you say, it almost has to be some kind of malware.

Scan with Malwarebytes on full system mode and see if it picks up on anything. Update the definitions first.

 

[DaDeadmanINC]

I had the same problem, I could not open any window/program without windows minimizing it and bringing me to my destop, that once every 30 min for you, was once every 5 sec for me, like it was in an infinite loop of (show destop). I tryed to repair my windows install but it said it was fine, end result was a reformat as system restore failed. This was about a week after a fresh install of a Legit W7

 

[Data]

Right now it's not happening.
The last few things I did:
Turned off automatic backups (once per month)
Turned off disk defrag (once per month)
Turned off virus check (once per week)
Also changed the time when the monitor goes to sleep (from 45 min to 25 min)

after realizing that it is not doing it anymore, I switched all the changes above back, one by one, but it still is all fine.

I rebooted this morning and so far it still is all fine, so I have no clue what would have fixed it.
I will report back in a week or earlier if it happens again.

 

[Barman58]

I would personally suspect something to do with the power saving - the system is quite complex on Windows 7 with several entries seeming to control the same thing.

Sometimes changing one item will stop the minor conflict causing the issue, even though the actual time setting may not seem related - it's seems that there is some type of harmonic set up by the different options that causes a sleight glitch that can cause windows to flash or close

 

[Data]

Would have been nice, but it's back doing it's thing.
After booting this morning, exactly 30 min later it deselected the browser window.
I started to do do all the following, what seemed to fix it the first time.

Right now it's not happening.
The last few things I did:
Turned off automatic backups (once per month)
Turned off disk defrag (once per month)
Turned off virus check (once per week)
Also changed the time when the monitor goes to sleep (from 45 min to 25 min)

It's pain staking, every time I make a change, I have to wait 30 min to see if it fixed it.
So far, after changing settings in each of those above individually and then all together, it has not fixed the problem.
I'm back to square one.

 

[wallyinnc]

Data, have you followed torrentg's suggestion and scanned it with Malwarebytes?

 

[Data]

Data, have you followed torrentg's suggestion and scanned it with Malwarebytes?

I scanned with AVG, but I now downloaded Malwarebytes and did a full system scan, here is the result:

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.41
Database version: 3182
Windows 6.1.7600

11/16/2009 10:12:02 PM
mbam-log-2009-11-16 (22-12-02).txt

Scan type: Full Scan (C:\|D:\|E:\|)
Objects scanned: 1334933
Time elapsed: 2 hour(s), 57 minute(s), 41 second(s)

Memory Processes Infected: 0
Memory Modules Infected: 0
Registry Keys Infected: 0
Registry Values Infected: 0
Registry Data Items Infected: 0
Folders Infected: 0
Files Infected: 2

Memory Processes Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Memory Modules Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Keys Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Values Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Registry Data Items Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Folders Infected:
(No malicious items detected)

Files Infected:
C:\Users\David\Documents\Business\Webserver\Homeserver\ScSetup20.exe (Backdoor.IRCbot) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
D:\from Vista to Win7\Documents\Business\Webserver\Homeserver\ScSetup20.exe (Backdoor.IRCbot) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Those two files it found, are from many years ago when I ran a server and backed up and moved files to a new drive.
I never ran those in the past five years and 3 or so systems ago.
I have a lot of old backups and files from my older systems on these drives.
Anyways, I removed them and still have the same problem.

 

[Data]

I haven't made any changes and after the malware check, it still was doing it.
However, this morning I booted up and so far, for the past 4 hours it didn't do it.

 

[CRimsonEagle]

oh dear oh dear... when will this ever stop?

@ Data

The same problem has been occuring with me and i updated from windows vista 32bit. Now i have windows 7 32bit and yes the problem occurs about every 20-30 minutes. (I haven't timed it, all i know is that it interrupts my gaming and is very annoying). I am installing that malware and i am going to run it and see what that does. If any solution is found please post immediately. You have been very helpful.

 

[Data]

I have not had the problem since, I don't know what fixed it, but found something interesting, that could have something to do with it.
To make sure, I installed this fix too.

AVG Forums - AVG Causing Lost Focus/Minimize Full Screen Application

 

[CRimsonEagle]

i downloaded it. hope it works. but yea the avg form says that its gona get fixed "soon..." I hope so.

 

[wallyinnc]

I looked there and it seems like it could be your solution
If you guys confirm it solves the problem, please mark the thread as solved (upper right corner, report button, state solved) so others can find the solution more easily

thanks for posting your feedback so far

 

[CRimsonEagle]

it did not work for me

 

[wardog]

I'm getting the same problem so I'll be interested to see what you guys find.

 

[StayDown]

Same thing happening to me and i'm also running AVG....trying their temp fix and will post if that helped at all.

 

[StayDown]

nope AVG temp fix did not work for me