Odd minor computer glitch.

Ranger Wickett · November 20th, 2009, 03:25 AM

I've noticed for the past few days that every once in a while, I'll be doing nothing at all, and suddenly my computer will act like I clicked away from the window. It doesn't minimize anything, or change the screen at all, but if I was typing in Word, my cursor vanishes, and if I keep typing nothing happens. It's sort of like if you click the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. It happens in both Word and Firefox, at least, but I haven't tried anything else.

A couple days ago I let my roommate use my computer, and he's the kind of guy who doesn't know fuck-all about computers except that YouTube has funny videos. I'm wondering if any of you know what might be causing the problem. So far my antivirus program hasn't noticed anything. I'm perplexed.

PWD · November 20th, 2009, 04:01 AM

You have a process running in the background that is periodically stealing focus.

That's bad behavior for a program, but doesn't necessarily indicate any problems or anything malicious.

It can be annoying as all fuck to discern what it is and get rid of it though. If you're like most John Q Computeruser people out there, you've undoubtedly got a lot of stupid shit installed you could stand to lose as a first diagnostic step.

Kill off your ipod synch services, the Quicktime updater, your realplayer taskbar shit... all that kind of stuff. Open up your task manager via CTRL-Alt-Del and start itemizing and identifying processes and gradually paring back what you've got bloated out onto your system.

Or, if it's not problematic and you're lazy... ignore it.

dar · November 20th, 2009, 04:06 AM

Is it a laptop? It might just be that the track pad is going wonky or you are inadvertently brushing against it. Do you use a wireless mouse and keyboard? There could be interference, buy any new electronics lately? Anything wireless? Could be the batteries are going south if they are internal/rechargeable.

Ah. PWD sounds like he's nailed it.

Joshuas Randallus · November 20th, 2009, 01:26 PM

If you're running Windows, there's a little program called Startup Control Panel that can allow you to control some of the obnoxious shit that starts itself every time you, uh, Startup.

Here it is --> http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

My old computer booted about 30% faster after I used this program to curb all the shit that was loading.

PWD · November 20th, 2009, 03:08 PM

msconfig does the same thing and it's an inherent part of windows.

Start->Run->msconfig - hit the startup tab.

octoberblu3 · November 20th, 2009, 04:13 PM

I would try msconfig first as well, and if that fails, try another microsoft sanctioned tool : Autoruns (Mexican food not included.)

Ranger Wickett · November 20th, 2009, 10:22 PM

Hehe. Thanks folks. I'll give these a try.

(Desktop, no wireless anything.)

I'll report how it goes.

DangerGirl! · November 20th, 2009, 10:30 PM

Question: Do you have a facebook chat window open when this happens?

On the very rare occasion that I use the facebook chat feature, the receipt of a new message "steals" my cursor from whatever other window I was working in.

Rith · November 24th, 2009, 10:49 PM

I have a similar issue with my mouse, except it doesn't only click, it scrolls the mouse wheel as well. No idea why that would occur.

Cynosure · November 25th, 2009, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWD

msconfig does the same thing and it's an inherent part of windows.

Start->Run->msconfig - hit the startup tab.

Yes, but there is dedicated software – freeware, at that – out there that identifies each of the various startup programs on your system, and advises you on whether or not to disable/remove them.