2

An empty, rectangle box popped out of nowhere whilst playing a game and listening to music trough Chrome. This resulted in all my current apps being minimized, including the game I was playing.

During this, clicking my desktop and right clicking the box itself only made Windows go "Ding", with no other feedback whatsoever. So far, I have only encountered this issue once, and have never seen it before on any kind of computer. It went away upon restarting explorer.exe.

I decided to use the built-in Windows defender after experiencing trouble with both Avast! and BitDefender on my previous Windows 7 installation, and I am experienced enough to tell a scam/fishy item from a legitimate resource in terms of general use. I can confirm that Defender works, at least to an extent, after attempting to infect my own computer and failing.

I am myself very keen on file optimization and making sure I only have as little files as I need, so I don't go around installing whatever I see floating around. I know what I need and what I don't.

I cannot stress this enough, the box was empty. There were no ads or such.

Here are two screenshots for reference - One I took during the strange event, and one I took after.

enter image description here

enter image description here

DavidPostill
  • 153,128
  • 77
  • 353
  • 394
Haniasita
  • 61
  • 10
  • This sounds like a virus have you installed anything lately and what types – Racing121 Jul 06 '15 at 20:57
  • 1
    possible duplicate of [How can I remove an unwanted fragment of old GUI on my screen? (Windows 7)](http://superuser.com/questions/669860/how-can-i-remove-an-unwanted-fragment-of-old-gui-on-my-screen-windows-7) – DavidPostill Jul 06 '15 at 21:03
  • RACING121, the last programs I've been installing are from trusted sources. Mainly game-related content : VTFEdit, Java 8 Update 45 (64-bit) (Had the 32-bit version before), Nvidia's latest driver, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables and various games trough Steam. – Haniasita Jul 06 '15 at 21:47
  • I don't believe the proposed duplicate is about the same problem. The ghost fragments it describes are left over from a previous activity and are passive. What is described here pops up fresh and is associated with minimizing current apps. – fixer1234 Jul 07 '15 at 07:06

1 Answers1

2

With a little luck, You can find out exactly which application is causing the problem.

All You need to do, is run this program.

If the windows appears again, You just have to click it while You are running focus.exe
This nice little tool, will show You which program stole the focus. That will be the one causing the problem.

Divin3
  • 1,775
  • 1
  • 14
  • 30
  • While the issue still hasn't happened again, this definitely sounds like what I've been needing. I will report back if this ever solves my issue. As of right now, I'll consider this to be my solution. – Haniasita Jul 06 '15 at 21:44
  • If I can help You with anything else, feel confident to ask. If the focus.exe does not help You, just write a comment, and I will do some more research and update my answer with more solutions. – Divin3 Jul 06 '15 at 21:49