Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

phubans

Indier Than Thou
Level 10

TIG Mascot

Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

« on: November 23, 2009, 11:07:36 AM »

Hey guys, I thought that since you all play games you might have encountered this problem before and might have the solution. There seems to be a process that keeps bringing Windows Explorer back into focus, which is a major problem when I'm trying to play games because they end up minimizing and in some cases (like Fallout 3) I can't get back into the game.

This is a problem for obvious reasons, and I haven't figured out why this is happening (it's also a recent problem). My video driver is up to date and I've scanned with AVG and Adaware and it would appear that I don't have any spyware on my computer, so I really have no idea what's causing it. And I can't really track the process with task manager because it happens so quickly that by the time I check task manager it's hard to know which process was to blame.

Here's what my task manager looks like:

Do any of these look like they could be the culprit?


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ＭＡＤＨＯＵＳＥ

Imagineergames

Level 1

Sweet Slithering Bogaboo of Serpentine Proportions

Re: Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2009, 11:43:16 AM »

Does this help? http://www.secguru.com/link/how_to_identify_unknown_processes_in_windows

What I do whenever that sort of crap happens, is to just Google the process name. I usually get two or three good results right away.


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Imagineers of Flights of Fancy!<br /><br />Shades of Violet - Song of the Clockwork Princess

i wanna be the guy

Guest

Re: Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2009, 01:56:50 PM »

slightly off topic, but is firefox really supposed to be using that much?

because god damn opera is like a fucking feather compared to that


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C.A. Silbereisen

Schlagerstar
Global Moderator
Level 10

eurovision winner 2014

Re: Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2009, 02:07:47 PM »

Yeah, Firefox is a resource hog. Granted, he probably has several tabs open...


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Rogue's Souls (UPDATED April 14)

MindEraser

Level 4

Re: Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

« Reply #4 on: November 23, 2009, 02:12:55 PM »

Quote from: 1up on November 23, 2009, 01:56:50 PM

slightly off topic, but is firefox really supposed to be using that much?

because god damn opera is like a fucking feather compared to that

Yes, firefox is generally more hoggy than other browsers I've used. But, having a LOT of tabs open, I've managed to get opera using 900mb of ram before.

About the OP's problem: The only advice I can really give you is to kill off processes 1 by 1 until explorer stops popping up. (I would not attempt to stop your antivirus, and if you feel so compelled, save it for last)


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Cheater‽

Level 10

Re: Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

« Reply #5 on: November 23, 2009, 05:26:18 PM »

Man, this reminds me of the time my antivirus was causing games to crash. Having Half Life 2 (thanks, Hroon!) not working led me to a troubleshooting wiki, and it turns out my antivirus was causing problems even while not running. It fucks things up so much I had to uninstall it.

It wasn't AVG though. Actually, I think this doesnt have anything to do with this topic i need water/


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phubans

Indier Than Thou
Level 10

TIG Mascot

Re: Unknown process bringing Windows back to focus?

« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2009, 10:08:19 PM »

Well I think (or at least hope) the problem is solved. AVG did a scan today and found some stuff that was removed. I played L4D2 for a couple hours tonight without having any problems. I guess I'll know for sure when I play Fallout 3.

BTW, any TIGers playing L4D2 on PC? I'm on Steam as phubans