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Approximately after last big creator update, I noticed that some windows become "click-through", that is, when I try to click something in a window, what is actually clicked is behind it (which is invisible until you click it).

If it's another window that was behind it comes to the top, if it's desktop and you manage to double click an icon - that app will come up, etc. The click to the visible window on top do not register.

So far it happened to Google Chrome and Steam. It happens appropriately once a day, I was not able to determine what causes it. If you close the affected app and re-open it the effect goes away.

Any idea how I could track down, why this keeps happening?

Update: Just to avoid answer that suggest to "reboot" or "reinstall windows", here is what I tried:

  • Antivirus check - pass
  • chkdsk check - pass
  • SFC /Scannow - pass
  • Windows Update - latest

PC is being re-booted regularly.

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  • 1
    I have the same issue. It happens to my Battle.net client and is extremely irritating.
    – Dois
    Dec 15, 2017 at 3:44
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    I'm still getting this. No obvious fix. Pain in the ass.
    – darylknight
    Mar 28, 2018 at 9:21
  • I have a similar bug happen quite frequently; in windows 10 (v 10.0.18362 right now). It seems to only happens when clicking on title bars managed by windows. That is, I've had it happen on various parts of the title bar, including the "X" (close), in various applications. I have never had it happen in the main body of a window, and I could not get it to happen in Chrome, which has a title bar with very custom behavior. So my suspicion is that it is a problem specific to the windows title bar.
    – Abacus
    Apr 9, 2020 at 15:11

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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I have that bug too. Only fix afaik is downgrading to a pre 1709 version. A temporary workaround is hitting Win+D twice or reloading the vga driver with CTRL+Shift+Win+B or minimizing and maximizing the affected windows.

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    I've recently been experiencing this as well - your double win+d solution fixed the immediate symptom. Thanks for the workaround until a real answer appears.
    – Big Luke
    Feb 15, 2018 at 12:03
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    Thank you, CTRL+Shift+Win+B worked for me. Great advice!
    – Andrew Savinykh
    Mar 2, 2018 at 5:29
  • That's the command to restart the GPU. Have y'all checked for updated graphics drivers for your systems?
    – music2myear
    May 17, 2018 at 21:31
  • This seems to happen after my son plays Fortnite - only solution previously was a reboot - double Win+D seems to have solved it.
    – jmc
    Nov 10, 2018 at 21:17
1

Have had the same issue recently on Win 10 1803 with a Logitech G403 mouse on a Surface Book 2 - sometimes touch input would work nevertheless, sometimes it wouldn't. Win+L, then signing back in works for me to restore functionality - so does Ctrl+Alt+Del, then simply dismissing the screen that opens.

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  • Hmm, this worked for me. G602... I found it odd that when I had something focused (tabbing through things), clicking would de-foucus, suggesting windows knew about the click, but that is all that clicking could do.
    – Stephen
    Feb 8, 2021 at 17:41
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I fixed it by disabling the mouse "enhance pointer precision" option.

I found myself in the same situation. Clicking on a title bar of a maximized window would bring the window below to focus if it was also maximized.

Found out it would only happen if I move the cursor fast to the top and clicking. But it wouldn't happen if moving slowly to the very top and clicking.

I hope this helps anyone.. it was getting annoying already.

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For what it's worth: I came across this thread to fix the same issue. It was even worse: clicking anywhere would unfocus all windows (still able to be refocused with Alt+Tab), but even the desktop was unresponsive. I also didn't want to reboot. The two key combinations in the accepted answer sadly didn't work.

Restarting File Explorer (which manages the desktop) fixed the issue. I did this by using Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open Task Manager, and then navigating through it using the right combinations of Tab, arrow keys and spacebar to select File Explorer and the Restart button.

Takes a bit to find the right way to navigate this way, but it's not impossible, and worked for me.

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  • Thanks! Same issue here. It seems to work for now but it comes back from time to time, so I'm still looking for a definitive solution. Dism doesn't find any issues with the system either. One alternative way of restarting explorer is to open the Command Prompt (Win + R, type cmd) and run taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe & start explorer.
    – RibeiroBreno
    Apr 19, 2022 at 16:45
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Try to use DISM.EXE to check/repair system files:

  1. Scan to check for corruption:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

  1. Check to see whether any corruption has been dethatched:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

  1. If it is repairable, type below command(make sure that system built-in Windows Update is working as below command using Windows Update to provide the files that are required to fix corruptions):

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

>So far it happened to Google Chrome and Steam.

If it happens on specific software/program, try to have an reparation installation, or re-installation and check the result.

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-1

I just now had this happen to me in audacity and was able to make it start responding again by alt-tabbing through all my programs a couple times and ending up in audacity again. Not a very good solution, but it worked in a pinch.

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You might have to do a fresh re-installation of Windows to fix the error. Or you can run chkdsk (check disk) which checks your system for errors. To do this, press (Win Key + R), type cmd and press enter. As soon as the Command Prompt window pops up, type chkdsk and press enter. It might take a while for the utility to check your whole system.

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  • Obviously he knows about reinstalling windows, and as for chkdsk, If you had had that problem or heard of that problem and heard of that solution working then mention it but you have not. And it's not the kind of thing that a hard drive or data corruption issue causes at all.
    – barlop
    Dec 12, 2017 at 1:10

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