Dekstop Keeps on Flashing every now & then

[pauldy]

Has anyone encountered an issue like this? wherein you're desktop would suddenly flash? (in the 0:46 mark)

It's more of a general problem than DCS related, as it's seems to also happen when i'm using other programs.
My desktop would flash in a spilt second then back again to any programs I'm running

It's distracting and can't seem to stop it.

I've aleady updated to the latest nvidia drivers and windows 10 64 update.

 

[LucShep]

That's odd. 
Windows 10 or Windows 11?

Just for a test, try disabling both Fullscreen optimizations and GameBar.
Here's some step by step on how to do that, both in Win10 and Win11....


Disabling Fullscreen Optimizations:

1. Right-click on the game’s desktop shortcut (or the .EXE file of the game or app) and click on Properties
    
2. Select the Compatibility tab from the options available at the top
    
3. Tick-mark the box that says “Disable fullscreen optimizations” and save this change by clicking on Apply > Ok
    

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How to disable Game Bar on Windows 10

1. Open Windows Settings.
To do so, open the Start menu and click the small "gear" icon, or press Windows+i on your keyboard. In Settings, click "Gaming."

2. Under "Game Bar" settings, click the switch beneath "Enable Game Bar" until it is turned off.
Also, untick-mark the box that says “Allow your controller to open Game Bar".

After that, close the Settings app. All is done, Game Bar is now disabled.

If you try pressing Windows+G, nothing will pop up. Even if you press the Xbox button on an Xbox controller, nothing will happen. Game Bar has been fully disabled.

PS: if you'd like to enable the Game Bar again later on, then reverse the process (switch on the toggle and box again).

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How to disable Game Bar on Windows 11:

1. Press Windows + I keys together to open Settings.

2. Click on Gaming in the left pane.

3. Then, click on the Xbox Game Bar in the right pane, as shown.

4. Switch Off the toggle for Open Xbox Game Bar using this button on a controller option to disable Xbox Game Bar.

5. Next, click on Apps in the left pane and select the Apps & features option in the right pane.

6. Use the App list search bar to search for Xbox.

7. Click on the three-dotted icon for Xbox Game Bar.

8. Then, click on Advanced options, as depicted.

9. Click on the drop-down menu for Background apps permissions and select Never from this list.

Hereon, Xbox Game Bar wouldn’t run in the background and consume system resources.

10. Scroll down and click on the Terminate button to Immediately terminate this app and its related processes.

Edited September 28, 2024 by LucShep

[pauldy]

Did what you said for Windows 10.. same...

I guess i'll just have my PC reformatted since this isn't a DCS problem alone... 

Edited September 29, 2024 by pauldy

[LucShep]

 That's really odd, and I'm divided.

On one side, for some reason it looks like games are running on Windowed Borderless, not "true" Fullscreen.
For example, in your video, check how quickly you've Alt+Tab'ed from the game to desktop (and vice versa).... there should've been a bigger delay, like a pause, if on Fullscreen.
What I mean is, it doesn't look to me like your game is running "true" Fullscreen. Makes me wonder what happens if you press "Alt + Enter" once in the game (any game)...

On a different side, it looks like another app running on background is provoking that "sudden flash".
Now, what is I don't know but, I suspect, it may be some kind of automatized process being triggered in the background, like a cleaner, or optimizer, or maybe antivirus?

•  if you use CCLEANER, make sure in its options that "Smart Cleaning" is deactivated.
•  if you use a specific AntiVirus, make sure that every game is added to its exceptions list.
   

Edited September 30, 2024 by LucShep

[pauldy]

Yes, I did try to Press Alt + Enter for full screen mode, added DCS to Windows Defender Exclusions but i'm not using anyt CCleaner of sorts... and nope.. same results.

Another thing is that I prolly don't need to confirm this using other games..
as I'm also experience the problem even as i typed in this reply.. Taskbar flashes through any of my browsers.. 

..guess it's more of a PC thing after all and i'm kinda betting I'm screwed   

In the video, i'v also opened the task manager. Maybe there's something running in there that should'nt be running..

 

[TKhaos]

Could have sworn I posted this the other night, guess I deleted the wrong post as I was tired

I've had this on one of my systems before, turned out to be a program I had installed running a background command and interfering with everything. I just made a note of the exact time it happened then used a Powershell command to see if anything had run at that time, doesn't have to be down to the second more like just say it happened at 0900 you can look to see if anything run in the background at the time when it happened.

If you start Powershell as Admin then type this command, it will sort it in descending order:

Get-ScheduledTask |  Get-ScheduledTaskInfo | Select TaskName, TaskPath, LastRunTime | Sort LastRunTime -Descending | out-gridview

Alternatively you can use the Command Prompt but the display is a bit more basic, this way you can save it as a MS Excel file:

schtasks /query /FO CSV /V >C:\Documents\tasks-list.csv

You can change the C:\Documents to whatever you like, so could even create a temporary directory like C:\Temp, as long as the directory exists for it to save to.

Slightly different but I looked at someone's system yesterday, they kept getting a blank, black box pop up everyday for a few milliseconds, used the method above and turned out to be CCleaner running crash dump files

You could have a look at Windows Event Viewer as well, might find something in Critical, Error or Warnings to give you a few clues, again just make a note of the time it happens.

Few years ago a similar problem was caused by a setting in the Nvidia Control Panel on some systems, Desktop Colour Settings and changing it from Auto to Desktop Programs seemed to solve it. Haven't seen that issue in a while but worth a look if nothing else works from other suggestions, might have just been specific monitors.

[BitMaster]

99% This ^

[pauldy]

..i will just throw in the towel and call quits. Updated and performed a scan using Windows Defender. Updated the Nvidia Driver to the latest. Updated my browsers, cleared my browser history etc..  Updated DCS to the current build.

It's still the same.. I can't really play DCS as these desktop flashes somehow messes up the my game experience and messes up the F-15C's rudder in-game.

 

I'll just schedule my Rig for reformatting.. I'm assuming my PC got infected with some weird unidentifiable program, malware, virus or whatever it is..

Anyways thanks for all that information & tips.

Edited October 2, 2024 by pauldy

[LucShep]

7 hours ago, pauldy said:

..i will just throw in the towel and call quits. Updated and performed a scan using Windows Defender. Updated the Nvidia Driver to the latest. Updated my browsers, cleared my browser history etc..  Updated DCS to the current build.

It's still the same.. I can't really play DCS as these desktop flashes somehow messes up the my game experience and messes up the F-15C's rudder in-game.

 

I'll just schedule my Rig for reformatting.. I'm assuming my PC got infected with some weird unidentifiable program, malware, virus or whatever it is..

Anyways thanks for all that information & tips.

 

@pauldy

Before quitting and go to such drastic methods on it...

Please try following this tutorial (exactly, step by step) with a method for a Win10 reinstallation without loosing any programs, settings or drivers.

The part that you want to follow starts at 6:43 and ends at 10:54 in this video ("The 'Last Resort' Repair Upgrade" section)
Nothing else, before or after that, is of interest to you:
 

It's like I'm saying, it reverts your Windows installation to default (so, like a fresh install) but without loosing anything at all.
Everything will stay the same, apps, drivers, documents and whatnot.

It takes about 20 mins to do the whole thing and, who knows, it may help you there.
Meaning, at worse, you lose 20 mins of your time, and at least you'll know if it's Windows corrupted/borked files related or not.

After that, if still does it, then yes... it's fair to suspect something else went wrong and some program, or even malware or virus(?) is running on the background.
If so, try running SuperAntiSpyware Free, it scans for nasty stuff like malware, rootkits, spyware, trojans and etc, and that part too hopefully gets cleared.

Edited October 2, 2024 by LucShep

[pauldy]

On 10/3/2024 at 4:35 AM, LucShep said:

@pauldy

Before quitting and go to such drastic methods on it...

Please try following this tutorial (exactly, step by step) with a method for a Win10 reinstallation without loosing any programs, settings or drivers.

The part that you want to follow starts at 6:43 and ends at 10:54 in this video ("The 'Last Resort' Repair Upgrade" section)
Nothing else, before or after that, is of interest to you:
 

It's like I'm saying, it reverts your Windows installation to default (so, like a fresh install) but without loosing anything at all.
Everything will stay the same, apps, drivers, documents and whatnot.

It takes about 20 mins to do the whole thing and, who knows, it may help you there.
Meaning, at worse, you lose 20 mins of your time, and at least you'll know if it's Windows corrupted/borked files related or not.

After that, if still does it, then yes... it's fair to suspect something else went wrong and some program, or even malware or virus(?) is running on the background.
If so, try running SuperAntiSpyware Free, it scans for nasty stuff like malware, rootkits, spyware, trojans and etc, and that part too hopefully gets cleared.

 

Late reply but thanks much for these detailed steps on repair install.

Although For Now, I'm kinda holding off doing a Windows Re-install or Repair-install as you mentioned.

For some reason there seems to be a "Work Around" i found out..

1. I cleared all broswer histories for both Chrome & Edge
2. I updated Windows Defender definitions

3. Performed an Antivirus full scan
4. Performed an Offline Windows Defender Scan for Malware

5. I ran & played DCS World. It seems that the Desktop Flashes had stopped...

...that is until some few days later... The problem recurred. I was getting Desktop Flashes again...
Like lmao.. I'm just browsing SFW sites and Social Media so idk what happened there.

For some reason... these desktop flashes seem to have started after I downloaded the Civil Aviation/AI Airliners mod for DCS... maybe the host site for the file was infected?

I did another round of Offline Windows Defender Scan, and the Desktop Flashes seems to have stopped again and was able to fly in DCS smoothly..
I'm starting to think there's an infection in my rig that Windows Defender can somehow fix.. but not resolve or delete completely..

For now I'm waiting for the next Defender Update.. and will do a Full Scan, then Offline Scan. I haven't done another Full Scan, since there seems to be no newer virus definitions update yet from microsoft since last week...

 

Edited October 8, 2024 by pauldy

[BIGNEWY]

Hi, 

can you attach a track replay example that is as short as possible showing it happen. 

I want to run the same scenario as you to see if I can reproduce. 

thank you 

[pauldy]

I don't think it's a DCS Problem but more of a Windows problem on my end. Since, if I browse the web, ...like watch youtube in full screen.. or edit stuff in lightroom.. the Desktop Flashes also occur.

6 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

Hi, 

can you attach a track replay example that is as short as possible showing it happen. 

I want to run the same scenario as you to see if I can reproduce. 

thank you 

 

[BitMaster]

A:  Create a new, admin enabled, user account and check...

B:  Boot with all Start-Up apps disabled, check...

 

note the exact time stamp and dig through ms-logs to find a hint....  it's a tiny little but nasty switch ..somewhere