Games keep alt tabbing by themselves

[Cookie]

So for about 3-4 months now games have been alt tabbing by themselves as I am playing them. Examples are Witcher 3, Rainbow 6 Siege and Arkham Knight. There doesnt seem to be an obvious pattern and I have tried finding anything suspicious in the Windows Event Logger and Task Scheduler, but I cannot find anything unfortunately.

Every time a game alt tabs there is no message from Windows or anything like that, just my Desktop. I have to alt tab into the game or click the icon on the task bar to continue playing.
If it makes any difference, I am using Avira Free Antivirus. However I do not receive any messages from it.

Any ideas what it might be? I also just unplugged my printer in case it was trying to update or something but it made no difference.
Any help would be appreciated.

[rotNdude]

When you are playing a game in full screen, any background application that takes focus away from the game will minimize the game. You need to figure out what application may be doing this. Another way to test is run the game in windowed mode with no borders. There are usually commands you can use to set the game to run that way.

[Prowlcorp]

Well I have this same problem, except it does it to just about anything not just full screen games. If it isn't full screen it just takes focus away

[Roll Log Eye]

Maybe you are accidentally hitting the windows key? I know it sounds like a stupid responce but I used to do it all the time until I got a keyboard with a windows key lock on it. Try removing the keycap on both windows keys and see if that helps.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Run the game in Borderless Window

- Disable ALL StickyKeys & MouseKeys

[Prowlcorp]

with mine, i'll not press anything for a minute and it still does it

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Then put the game on Priority = High
Everything else will be on Normal

[CTRL+ALT+DEFEAT]

I believe this is related to DX11/DX10 and Steam (not sure where the blame actually lies).

If a game is built using either D3D10 or 11 (or even if it is D3D9, but allows you to enable DX10/11 features) and you run the game in fullscreen, this will happen.

It has occurred with every single game I have that utilizes those two APIs, but only games installed from Steam, so I'm going to say Steam itself is what is stealing focus.

To get around this (and has already been suggested), I either run the game in Windowed mode or, if available in-game, Borderless Fullscreen. If they are just features (like Crysis 2, for example), I just disable it and only run in D3D9 mode.

If Borderless Fullscreen is not an option, then you can achieve the same effect by running it Windowed and then use Windowed Borderless Gaming to remove the explorer ribbon from around the window and then use Shift Window to maximize to Fullscreen. Shift Window allows you to create per game profiles, also.

Windowed Borderless Gaming: http://westechsolutions.net/sites/WindowedBorderlessGaming/

Shift Window: http://grismar.net/shiftwindow/

If you need help using them, just say the word, but they are pretty easy.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Get a "Disable Winkey" app or buy a Keyboard that has this option too. Helps.
But yes BorderlessWindow does help.

[_I_]

start -> run -> msconfig
startup tab, untick all startup items
service tab, untick all non ms items
reboot


https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/
install mbam
run mbam, let it update, and full scan
fix all problems
reboot in safe mode
run mbam, let it full scan
fix all problems
reboot


also check task scheduler, many newer forms of malware use it to update or reinstall themselves
start -> right click on computer -> manage
computer management -> system tools -> task scheduler -> task scheduler library
that list should be empty

[Gus Tarball]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

Get a "Disable Winkey" app or buy a Keyboard that has this option too. Helps.
But yes BorderlessWindow does help.

Or pop the key off if it isn't a laptop keyboard.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

^ tru

[Rix_Ronday]

Originally posted by _I_:

start -> run -> msconfig
startup tab, untick all startup items
service tab, untick all non ms items
reboot


https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/
install mbam
run mbam, let it update, and full scan
fix all problems
reboot in safe mode
run mbam, let it full scan
fix all problems
reboot


also check task scheduler, many newer forms of malware use it to update or reinstall themselves
start -> right click on computer -> manage
computer management -> system tools -> task scheduler -> task scheduler library
that list should be empty

this doesnt work :(((

[®NapalmSunrise®]

Originally posted by Rix_Ronday:

Originally posted by _I_:

start -> run -> msconfig
startup tab, untick all startup items
service tab, untick all non ms items
reboot


https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/
install mbam
run mbam, let it update, and full scan
fix all problems
reboot in safe mode
run mbam, let it full scan
fix all problems
reboot


also check task scheduler, many newer forms of malware use it to update or reinstall themselves
start -> right click on computer -> manage
computer management -> system tools -> task scheduler -> task scheduler library
that list should be empty

this doesnt work :(((

Are you on a multi monitor setup by any chance ?

[Unoriginal and Unfunny]

I dont know if you guys care or still have this problem I found out microsoft office was the problem for me.

[AussieBobby]

Originally posted by Pasta Prince:

I dont know if you guys care or still have this problem I found out microsoft office was the problem for me.

correct
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/6ea5lh/psa_the_rapid_flashing_cmd_screen_is_caused_by/