In the past day, Windows suddenly became very broken with these selection/focus issues:
- Occasionally, windows (ie. Edge, VSCode, File Explorer, etc.) seem to deselect if pressed anywhere. They can be selected via Alt-Tab, but clicking anywhere in the window would then deselect the entire window, making buttons inoperable.
- In this state, Alt+PrintScreen into Paint shows that the taskbar alone becomes active.
- Occasionally, basic Windows menus (ie. Start Menu, taskbar, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Task Manager, Snipping Tool, Alt-Tab menu) break (mouse hover works, keyboard shortcuts work, but mouse clicks don’t register).
- In this state, Alt+PrintScreen into Paint shows a hypersaturated version of the current window.
- Phantom mouse clicks
- Occasionally, I get the “This app can’t open” error, even for simple apps like Snipping Tool. I get additional symptoms of corruption, such as a corrupted VSCode install.
I also observed one-off oddities:
- I minimize a window, but a phantom version of it remains (I can click where the link used to be)
I have tried:
- System reboots
- Restarting Windows Explorer
- Turning on Safe Mode
- Windows Defender and Malwarebytes scan
- System Restore
sfc /scannow- DISM tool
