Losing Focus

[nice.nix]

Whenever I'm playing a Steam game, (noticed specifically on Spelunky and American Truck Simulator) the fullscreen game will suddenly minimize, I'll see a brief flash of what looks like a console window and I then have to ALT-TAB back into the game.

I've been using Steam for years and have noticed this before every few weeks, but since the last steam client update it is happening every 10-15 minutes.

Has anybody else experienced this or have any ideas (short of the ever present, just update all your drivers and reinstall everything on your computer flavour of non-advice) or any way of troubleshooting that you could share?

Thanks,
~NN

[AtheonX]

I have the same issue on both my PCs, no idea what is causing it.

Nothing relevant to be found in Event Log. It could be Steam related, but there was also a big W10 update recently, perhaps it was bugged somehow? Or it could be related to antivirus apps acting up (I use Malwarebytes + Norton 360 and they don't always play along). After disabling Malwarebytes I did not get the minimalizing, however I still got the console-ghost thing on top of the gamescreen.

[ReBoot]

That brief flash is a background program that steals focus. Start by uninstalling everything you don't really need to find out what it is.

[Artificial]

Got this off reddit, give it a shot:

go to Task Scheduler > Microsoft > Office > Right click "OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration" > Disable

Source

[MaddDoktor [Linux]]

I have no idea if this will help your issue. What mouse do you have? I have a Logitech MX Master and it has a hidden button under the foot of my thumb that sends the system Ctrl+Alt+Tab, which in the middle of an intensive online game would dump me out of the game into the desktop or different Window.

But I am running Linux, so I deactivated the key combination that does Alt+Tab and switched whatever used Ctrl+Alt+Tab to Ctrl+Alt+Home. That effectively deactivates the hidden mouse button, but is still easy enough to remember how to get out of a full screen game if it hangs.

[Washell]

http://www.adminscope.com/downloads/window-focus-logger/

[Forcen]

If you have office installed then artificials solution will solve it. Something with office messed up and this happened.

I recieved a windows update today, try to update windows and see if it solves it before trying that solution. Worth a shot.

[AtheonX]

It seems there is a Windows update that will not install (KB4020102). A site (Windowsreporter) in fact links that update to the minimizing of games, but since I don't have it installed, that is probably not the reason for my issues? Unless it installed in a bugged fashion and now Windows Update doesn't even recognize it has been installed, and... and... argh, I miss my Nintendo -.-

[ReBoot]

Again, it's a program on your PC. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows and it will be solved.

[AtheonX]

Manually installing KB4020102 seems to have fixed it.

[Hannibal]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

That brief flash is a background program that steals focus. Start by uninstalling everything you don't really need to find out what it is.

You really should stop giving advice. You really have no idea what your talking about. Especially giving extreme useless advice like this.

[Cathulhu]

Well, i admit that uninstalling is going a bit too far. But the general gist is correct. I would have recommended the termination of programs until the culprit is found instead of uninstalling them.

[nice.nix]

Found it ... in my case it was Alienware OnScreen Display ... for some reason it feels the need to grab focus when you're running a fullscreen game. Uninstalled it and everything is working fine now.

[ReBoot]

Out of curiosity, how did it find its way onto your PC in the first place? Did you install it?

[nice.nix]

May have always been on there. I own an Alienware laptop. Unfortunately, since Dell bought the company, the bloatware has gone straight to garbage.

[SeveQ]

I noticed that this often happens when I'm playing something that uses WASD controls and when I press one of these. Not every time and quite rarely but it's that noticeable that I'd say there's a connection...