What could be causing my games to tab out randomly?

[Zombie Slayer]

I've had this problem for a long time but never really looked into it. This has happened in multiple games, but most recently black ops 4, and there doesn't seem to be a pattern. I can't see any windows popping up when it happens.

The first solution I found was to disable a MS Office task in task schedular, but it wasn't there for me so its obviously something else. However, I found other tasks which were last run about the time the game tabbed to desktop. These are:

GoogleUpdateTaskMachineCore
GoogleUpdateTaskMachineUA
McAfeeLogon
NvBatteryBoostCheckOnLogon
NvNodeLauncher
NvProfileUpdaterOnLogon
NvTmMon
OneDrive Standalone Update Task

Could any of these be taking focus away from my games?. I'm not sure what some of them even are. Don't want to go messing with anything. Any help would be appreciated. Normally I wouldn't be too bothered but this has been getting me killed in black ops 4 zombies.

[Eshman]

Not sure what type of system you are working with first off but on most systems I come across in the field I do my best to convince clients to disable OneDrive permanently because it will constantly run in the background polling to see if any files have changed or updated. There are many how-to's out there on how to go about this. Also, if Google is constantly running in the background then maybe consider swapping to a different browser and uninstall it as well. Mozilla Firefox is a much less invasive and far more customizable option that doesn't track your web habits unless you actually want it to.

I would also check and see if anything is listed in your startup, boot, or logon options that could be running in the background. There are many free tools available you can use to do this.

[Zombie Slayer]

Originally posted by Eshman:

Not sure what type of system you are working with first off but on most systems I come across in the field I do my best to convince clients to disable OneDrive permanently because it will constantly run in the background polling to see if any files have changed or updated. There are many how-to's out there on how to go about this. Also, if Google is constantly running in the background then maybe consider swapping to a different browser and uninstall it as well. Mozilla Firefox is a much less invasive and far more customizable option that doesn't track your web habits unless you actually want it to.

I would also check and see if anything is listed in your startup, boot, or logon options that could be running in the background. There are many free tools available you can use to do this.

Thanks, I'll try these things and see if it works.

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

i use both google browser and microsoft one drive and yet do not have random 'tab out'.

use gaming mode on your antivirus.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Get rid of McAfee and get a better AV

[Zombie Slayer]

Could be the battle.net app causing the problem. By default it stays open in the background when launching a game. Just changed a setting so that it closes completley when I start BO4. I'll try that first.

Might just be a battle.net thing. AFAIK my other (steam) games haven't tabbed out in a while.

[Zombie Slayer]

Thought that was it but its started happening again yesterday and today. For some reason, whenever BO4 tabs out, my screen will get darker when I exit the game.

My Anti virus is BT virus protect/Mcafee but I can't find any settings that might be causing my alt tabbing issue.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Something in the background is taking focus
So the thing to do would be to check running processes and close any that do not need to be running while gaming and go from there,

[Supafly]

Originally posted by Freqsync:

Possible solution?

Play Game and wait for the random task switch to happen
Windows Key +R and run EVENTVWR

^This^ but I'd have it loaded and set to view m,ost recent events first so that when it does tab out OP doesn't need to waste time loading and navigating to the right section.

[The Rock God]

Another vote for Event Viewer here.
Years ago I was having problems with programs losing focus. Event Viewer showed I was getting an error in some updater for mobo drivers.