[SOLVED] If a program runs in windows it's recorded in the event viewer correct?

[theseawulf]

Firstly thank you for your time reading this and trying to help. I have a Windows 10 machine which I purchased new for the purpose of 1. making sure that it's fresh with no malware or hackers and thinking a new computer would run at its best. 2. primarily running full screen apps and media as it's a gaming/media computer.

However for some time now, some sort of windowless program or notification or hacker or something has been triggering full screen apps to minimize to desktop.(happens in apps that are not full screen too, except they do not minimize, they just lose focus as it switches to the desktop or another open app)

Earlier today I installed a new antivirus suite of software to see if it would help and it does not fix this. I was hoping it'd be that easy.

If you've ever had Windows pop up a question with an ok or cancel button and it minimized your full screen app for you to notice it and respond, my problem is acting very similar to that. Except there's no window and no notification. It just minimizes everything I'm doing, acts like it's thinking/sending data/loading or processing something, tabs apps in and out of focus really fast for a couple of seconds, occasionally switching/alt tabbing apps by itself, and then it stops. This can occur multiple times a day and I have no idea what program, process, or any other type of file that could cause this behavior. It's really quite jarring to be focused on work in an app and then BAM the machine freaks out.

So far I've installed av software with live active monitoring(didn't leave anything out of the subscription haha)
Turned off Windows notifications.
I've updated all Windows software, drivers and programs.
I've uninstalled any unused/rarely used programs in hopes one of those may be causing the issue.
I've made sure the only start up items are required programs and clean of anything unusual looking.

Most recently I've tried in my inexperience to identify anything unusual inside Windows event viewer but I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be looking for.
Is there anywhere in particular I should be looking for this? The only thing I can tell about whatever is causing it, will be the date and time it happens. It will leave me with no other information to hunt it down :\

This is the first time I've ever seen anything act so pointless and annoying on a PC.
Any help with figuring out how to find out what's causing all my full screen apps to randomly minimize to desktop(or otherwise tab out of focus) I would really super appreciate it.

 

[Colif]

one way to track them requires Win 10 Pro as you need to use group policy edit - https://superuser.com/questions/1052541/how-can-i-get-a-history-of-running-processes

SO it doesn't always close the same program? As there are ways to track usage of processes but if its not specific it makes it hard - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon


Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

 

[theseawulf]

one way to track them requires Win 10 Pro as you need to use group policy edit - https://superuser.com/questions/1052541/how-can-i-get-a-history-of-running-processes

SO it doesn't always close the same program? As there are ways to track usage of processes but if its not specific it makes it hard - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon


Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

That's right it doesn't minimize the same program. I have been in at least a couple completely different full screen apps and it's happened when using edge and chrome browsers as well(not maximized). If it happened right now while typing this reply to you, the text field would lose focus as I typed, the browser would flash a couple of times as whatever is opening in the background does whatever it's doing, and then it would either leave this browser on this web page open with the text field still out of focus, or it would end up on another open application. However, if I play a video game in full screen mode, it will completely minimize the game to the task bar when it happens. If a game is maximized in windowed mode, the game will lose focus and either remain out of focus, tab to another open app, or flash in and out of focus and continue as normal.

Whatever it is, it acts like it opens, causes the annoyance, and then closes and goes back to whatever dark evil place it came from until it's ready to randomly crawl out and strike again..

I'll never understand :
a. Why a policy editor is required to know what is happening on your computer
b. Why ALL versions of Windows don't come with some built in feature that can allow a user to know what is...happening..on

Hey any awesome free windows alternatives that will support all my hardware out there I can download? I'll just set this box up to dual boot and skip this Windows flashy minimizey nonsense.

But I will give these steps a try and report back when done. Lots of thanks!!

 

[Colif]

have you tried running malwarebytes to see if its malware causing it?

 

[Colif]

GPEDit was on the line I guess, Pro got a lot of features most people would never use, whereas Home got all the basic one. GPEDIT was sort of half way, but then I could say same thing about the registry. I don't know why one was locked up and the other which is just as dangerous if used without understanding it

Yeah, something that showed what was running at a given time would be nice to have. I assume there are 3rd party apps that can take a snapshot like that. Task manager sort of does but it doesn't log actions. Event viewer does but it doesn't show you anywhere.

 

[theseawulf]

Update:
I used the sysinternals process monitor. I can't find anything that sticks out as unusual. Anything scrolling when the issue occurs appear to be legit.
I checked event viewer in Windows and the only event I can find recorded by anything on the system when the problem most recently occurred, was system restore skipping creating a restore point because it reported there is already one saved that's recent enough.

Unless anyone can think of anything else I'm going to have to contact the pc support and pay to get them to track this down. I don't know what else to do to stop it. :\
If you have any further ideas please let me know. Otherwise thanks for the replies