Game alt-tabbing or flashing desktop [merged]

[GM Magister.8736]

@Gwaihir.1745 said:So is there any plan by anet to fix this? Theres certainly enough information documented in this thread alone to find the issue.

I can't speak for them directly, but I've been working with some of our programmers and sharing the info we've gotten from your tickets with them. Unfortunately, though, the last I heard was that we were still having trouble reproducing the issue reliably, or at least with nailing down the precise cause.

It might not be the answer you're looking for, but rest assured we are aware and we have teams trying to work out a solution. This one's just proving to be difficult.

[raskydnasty.7482]

GM Magister. The flip to desktop on zoning does not occur when zoning within say Lions Arch but when you go to another zone (like Lions Arch to WvW).

[godofcows.2451]

I have a system where the infinite flashing issue happens from time to time. I'm guessing it's the same issue this thread is based one. It has been a long time since i've encountered that though. Admittedly pretty much never.Back then, I had to circumvent a broken mouse so I avoided clicking as much as possible, even on minimizing and returning to gw2. I noticed that I didn't have the issue if I properly used alt tab (keyboard only) to cycle through my programs to give gw2 the focus and make it the active window. BUT, I did get the flashing issue from time to time if I used the mouse.All of the above on Fullscreen (not windowed) on a different resolution than my desktop's.

[Cregath.7628]

What I've noticed before the Windows update is that, when the game was loading a new zone, it froze for a moment for me. It wasn't long enough for Windows to say that the program is not responding. After the Windows update, the game alt-tabbing seems to happen at roughly this time as well. Maybe this was said before, but 9 pages of long posts is a bit too much. ^^Additionally, for me the game doesn't really tab down. It's more like it went to windowed and go reduced to only the top name area of the window and the X button in the corner and is moved to the upper-left corner.

[Kenneth.7536]

I changed the resolution to borderless fullscreen and that fixed it for me, give it a go, might help you out.

[Darlgon.9273]

Just adding my account to the list. And.. Not sure its an ArenaNet problem. It only started after I received the current Windows 10 update, weeks after this thread initially reported it. I played full-screen mode on both my laptop and my main PC. They received the update on different days. The machine that received the update last, did not have the behavior described until it also installed the Windows update.

Also, as the poster above noted, the automated Alt+Tab minimizing of the screen, and the restoring it, seemed to happened only when changing zones, not when I would port within a zone. Changing to Windowed Fullscreen stopped the behavior.

[Ayakaru.6583]

starting sometime this or maybe last week, this has been occuring to me as well.What happens is: you map travel to any location, the loading screen works, and between the loading screen, and loading the area, the game 'minimizes' for 1-2 seconds.But for me it happens almost consistently everytime I waypoint.

[Lord of the Fire.6870]

Hm the flashing of the windows desktop I have since I play Gilde Wars 2 it is just so the client become for a 0.5s transparent before going into the loading screen.I had another problem with the game minimizing and no loading screen until the new region is loaded with the 1803 creative win 10 update.

Source of this problem is the 1803 update did kicked out some moduls from NVIDIA , the update had problem with other driver as well(needed to reinstall them) I did install this update on multiple PC but this is not all. The hard part is a simple over installation won't fix it because Microsoft changed how stuff is loaded in the boot process. Mainly the msconfig.exe is no longer in charge of it but it is a part of the task manger now and this thing has much less options while changing this they kicked a lot of stuff out as part of a new optimization process for the boot up and login screen.

So you have to deinstall the whole driver installation with all the tools , reboot , clean up with something like ccleaner , reinstall it, reboot and maybe reboot again until you have the NVIDIA center and the info tryicon after the reboot.( It took me 2 reboots because of the boot optimization I believe ).

This solved my problems with it.

[Martimus.6027]

Changing it to borderless fullscreen also fixed the issue for me, but I don't want to have to play like that. Prefer native fullscreen.

[River Willow.6721]

Count me among the wretched. Win10 Update hit my machine earlier this week. sighI just came back to the game a few weeks ago so really hoping this gets figured out sooner than later.My task manager now shows multiple "instances" of gw2 running parallel (same numbers). No idea what's causing this.Windowed mode made my load times much worse so I followed the directions provided by Sky.8035 (tyvm for posting) and that has made the game somewhat playable in full screen mode, but I'm limping along compared to last week.

edited for clarity

[Pepper.3901]

@"River Willow.6721" said:Count me among the wretched. Win10 Update hit my machine earlier this week. sighI just came back to the game a few weeks ago so really hoping this gets figured out sooner than later.My task manager now shows multiple "instances" of gw2 running parallel (same numbers). No idea what's causing this.Windowed mode made my load times much worse so I followed the directions provided by Sky.8035 (tyvm for posting) and that has made the game somewhat playable in full screen mode, but I'm limping along compared to last week.

edited for clarity

My GW2 is showing multiple instances when it didn't before the bug hit.

It's also slowing in spurts to 1-5fps - and then zooming back to 20+ then 50+, then back down....

The game is in serious trouble right now.

[Pepper.3901]

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:I was asked to run an app called GameAdvisor and submit the results -- I did just that but In my email I requested that CS or at least @GM Magister.8736 confirm when he had received my GameAdvisor files because the CS team were giving other people the run around by saying they never received it

That email was sent on the 23rd and there has been silence ever since. I log back in to check on my ticket to find that its been closed....

Well played Magister.

I didnt see my ticket going very far anyway so I dont feel that i've been let down. Im just disappointed that CS is that bad when it comes to responding to people.

Either you received the attachments or you didnt or it was just a show to calm the masses that were getting wound up by not getting any response, Who knows...

Thanks anyway.

I have several tickets that were never answered - one is about this issue. I have screenshots to prove it. I suggest anyone use snipit when doingany ticket on any website - 'proving' that we are not lying seems to be a thing now. I would never lie about something so important to thehealth of a business or entity. Why would anyone?

CS's do ask for tests, one sends them back but we never hear back from them again - unless we follow up and then they askfor the same test saying they never received it or they are 'working on it' and we, again, never hear back. I've sent in a few... notone was ever answered with 'ah, here's the problem' but they do ask for more and more tests or the same tests, more than once.

This one issue, the screen flashing, is a prime example of ticketing being 'lost' or just never responded to in the first place.

[Gendo.4615]

I haven't read all the posts, but I thought I could post how I solved it:

disable focus assist after the last win 10 update

Just type "focus assist" in the win10 search box to bring up the config screen and read carefully all settings, as far as I remember I changed my settings to disable focus assist while running games.

[GM Magister.8736]

@atheria.2837 said:

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:I was asked to run an app called GameAdvisor and submit the results -- I did just that but In my email I requested that CS or at least @"GM Magister.8736" confirm when he had received my GameAdvisor files because the CS team were giving other people the run around by saying they never received it

CS's do ask for tests, one sends them back but we never hear back from them again - unless we follow up and then they askfor the same test saying they never received it or they are 'working on it' and we, again, never hear back. I've sent in a few... notone was ever answered with 'ah, here's the problem' but they do ask for more and more tests or the same tests, more than once.

So, we recently uncovered the reason for this. Our support site host seems to have changed how it handles "suspicious" attachments without notifying us, which has lead to some messages including perfectly safe attachments going missing. This doesn't always happen, but when it does we will not see your reply in the ticket thread we are working with you on, which is just as annoying to us as it is to you.

We're working with them to get it corrected. But, for now, if you submit something with an attachment and don't receive a reply for some time: Please do not give up hope or assume we are ignoring you! Send a gentle reminder/followup to see if we received your attachment, and we can usually dig through the site's records and find what was sent. :)

[Dying Oblivion.8296]

@GM Magister.8736 said:

@atheria.2837 said:

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:I was asked to run an app called GameAdvisor and submit the results -- I did just that but In my email I requested that CS or at least @GM Magister.8736 confirm when he had received my GameAdvisor files because the CS team were giving other people the run around by saying they never received it

CS's do ask for tests, one sends them back but we never hear back from them again - unless we follow up and then they askfor the same test saying they never received it or they are 'working on it' and we, again, never hear back. I've sent in a few... notone was ever answered with 'ah, here's the problem' but they do ask for more and more tests or the same tests, more than once.

So, we recently uncovered the reason for this. Our support site host seems to have changed how it handles "suspicious" attachments without notifying us, which has lead to some messages including perfectly safe attachments going missing. This doesn't always happen, but when it does we will not see your reply in the ticket thread we are working with you on, which is just as annoying to us as it is to you.

We're working with them to get it corrected. But, for now, if you submit something with an attachment and don't receive a reply for some time: Please do not give up hope or assume we are ignoring you! Send a gentle reminder/followup to see if we received your attachment, and we can usually dig through the site's records and find what was sent. :)

but you even deleted my comment about you not responding to when you received the attachment when I asked you to.... I cant follow it up because you people closed my ticket. What am i supposed to do?? Open up another ticket which will either be ignored or immediately closed again??? Can you not see how silly this is?

[GM Magister.8736]

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:

@GM Magister.8736 said:

@atheria.2837 said:

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:I was asked to run an app called GameAdvisor and submit the results -- I did just that but In my email I requested that CS or at least @GM Magister.8736 confirm when he had received my GameAdvisor files because the CS team were giving other people the run around by saying they never received it

CS's do ask for tests, one sends them back but we never hear back from them again - unless we follow up and then they askfor the same test saying they never received it or they are 'working on it' and we, again, never hear back. I've sent in a few... notone was ever answered with 'ah, here's the problem' but they do ask for more and more tests or the same tests, more than once.

So, we recently uncovered the reason for this. Our support site host seems to have changed how it handles "suspicious" attachments without notifying us, which has lead to some messages including perfectly safe attachments going missing. This doesn't always happen, but when it does we will not see your reply in the ticket thread we are working with you on, which is just as annoying to us as it is to you.

We're working with them to get it corrected. But, for now, if you submit something with an attachment and don't receive a reply for some time: Please do not give up hope or assume we are ignoring you! Send a gentle reminder/followup to see if we received your attachment, and we can usually dig through the site's records and find what was sent. :)

but you even deleted my comment about you not responding to when you received the attachment when I asked you to.... I cant follow it up because you people closed my ticket. What am i supposed to do?? Open up another ticket which will either be ignored or immediately closed again??? Can you not see how silly this is?

That's not us closing your ticket, but the system shutting it down due to perceived "inactivity," so I apologize. If you sent another response after the one which had the attachments, it looks like that one might have gotten blocked by the malware filter, too. I promise you, we aren't just ignoring you - the last reply we have received from you was in ticket #6907524 on May 18th.

If this keeps happening, do consider running a malware scan on your computer. We're pretty sure that some policy being a bit too picky, but we do need to keep our system safe, too! Make sure you do the same!

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Just an FYI: NCSoft Customer Service has nothing to do with Guild Wars (1 or 2).

[OutOfMyMind.9613]

The easiest way to get rid of this on Windows 10 Pro is to remove the 1803 update. You do this by going to All Settings / Update and Security / Recovery and choose the option to remove the update. This actually takes very little time. It also works under regular Windows 10, but more then likely the next time it checks for updates it will just reinstall it.

[Pepper.3901]

@GM Magister.8736 said:

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:

@GM Magister.8736 said:

@atheria.2837 said:

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:I was asked to run an app called GameAdvisor and submit the results -- I did just that but In my email I requested that CS or at least @GM Magister.8736 confirm when he had received my GameAdvisor files because the CS team were giving other people the run around by saying they never received it

CS's do ask for tests, one sends them back but we never hear back from them again - unless we follow up and then they askfor the same test saying they never received it or they are 'working on it' and we, again, never hear back. I've sent in a few... notone was ever answered with 'ah, here's the problem' but they do ask for more and more tests or the same tests, more than once.

So, we recently uncovered the reason for this. Our support site host seems to have changed how it handles "suspicious" attachments without notifying us, which has lead to some messages including perfectly safe attachments going missing. This doesn't always happen, but when it does we will not see your reply in the ticket thread we are working with you on, which is just as annoying to us as it is to you.

We're working with them to get it corrected. But, for now, if you submit something with an attachment and don't receive a reply for some time: Please do not give up hope or assume we are ignoring you! Send a gentle reminder/followup to see if we received your attachment, and we can usually dig through the site's records and find what was sent. :)

but you even deleted my comment about you not responding to when you received the attachment when I asked you to.... I cant follow it up because you people closed my ticket. What am i supposed to do?? Open up another ticket which will either be ignored or immediately closed again??? Can you not see how silly this is?

That's not us closing your ticket, but the system shutting it down due to perceived "inactivity," so I apologize. If you sent another response after the one which had the attachments, it looks like that one might have gotten blocked by the malware filter, too. I promise you, we aren't just ignoring you - the last reply we have received from you was in ticket #6907524 on May 18th.

If this keeps happening, do consider running a malware scan on your computer. We're pretty sure that some policy being a bit too picky, but we do need to keep our system safe, too! Make sure you do the same!

Not one of my tickets has been answered in weeks.

I have the screenshots... Your people don't want to hear it.

I have no 'malware' scanner - Windows 10 is doing what was intended to do.

If you want to see the proof of the tickets put in but not answered, please email any of us who are reporting not getting answers or even aconfirmation email at all.

If no confirmation email is ever received, there is a serious issue with the ticketing system on the server side.

When I go to login to the 'support' part of this website, I am not allowed to login.

I can login to the forums, but I can't properly login to put in a ticket.

So, again, many of us have put in tickets that are not only not getting answers, we aren't even getting confirmation emails as we havein the past.

[Pepper.3901]

@GM Magister.8736 said:

@atheria.2837 said:

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:I was asked to run an app called GameAdvisor and submit the results -- I did just that but In my email I requested that CS or at least @GM Magister.8736 confirm when he had received my GameAdvisor files because the CS team were giving other people the run around by saying they never received it

CS's do ask for tests, one sends them back but we never hear back from them again - unless we follow up and then they askfor the same test saying they never received it or they are 'working on it' and we, again, never hear back. I've sent in a few... notone was ever answered with 'ah, here's the problem' but they do ask for more and more tests or the same tests, more than once.

So, we recently uncovered the reason for this. Our support site host seems to have changed how it handles "suspicious" attachments without notifying us, which has lead to some messages including perfectly safe attachments going missing. This doesn't always happen, but when it does we will not see your reply in the ticket thread we are working with you on, which is just as annoying to us as it is to you.

We're working with them to get it corrected. But, for now, if you submit something with an attachment and don't receive a reply for some time: Please do not give up hope or assume we are ignoring you! Send a gentle reminder/followup to see if we received your attachment, and we can usually dig through the site's records and find what was sent. :)

I've been told several times that my attachments were never received... and this goes back over a year.

[Pepper.3901]

I thought I had the problem fixed.

I reverted the driver for my GTX970 to 2016 and as long as I didn't reboot, no flash to desktop and no icon at the top left of the monitor.

BUT, rebooting destroyed whatever good change was allowing the 'change map' screen to appear (which it was not doing before).

What did help was going to full screen windowed mode.

Not my fav, but at least the flashing to screen is gone until they can come up with a real fix.

Might not work for everyone, but it's worth a shot.

Reverting to the 2016 driver also helped ( a bit )with frame rates that are still going all over the place.

[Pepper.3901]

@OutOfMyMind.9613 said:The easiest way to get rid of this on Windows 10 Pro is to remove the 1803 update. You do this by going to All Settings / Update and Security / Recovery and choose the option to remove the update. This actually takes very little time. It also works under regular Windows 10, but more then likely the next time it checks for updates it will just reinstall it.

Many of us can't remove that update.

Windows deleted all history of restore points and all past update history.

Windows 10 has serious issues that still aren't fixed from that nasty and damaging update which harmed hardware and messed with hundreds ofsoftware titles as well as itself.

[Pepper.3901]

@"Gendo.4615" said:I haven't read all the posts, but I thought I could post how I solved it:

disable focus assist after the last win 10 update

Just type "focus assist" in the win10 search box to bring up the config screen and read carefully all settings, as far as I remember I changed my settings to disable focus assist while running games.

I turned that off before the problem even started.

That may be one of the causes for some, but it's not "the" cause of the desktop coming up between map/instance changes for all of us.

[Sarpan.9074]

Back on May 15 I submitted a ticket on this issue. I got a response with a case number and a request to install the Game Adviser app, run it and send the results in to Support, which I did.

On May 31, I got an email stating, "Before we can look into your request, we need you to contact us through the Guild Wars 2 Support Site. Please fill in as much of the information on the form as you can. An agent will reply to your ticket as soon as they are able. The more information you provide, the faster an agent will be able to help you."

Well, this is exactly what I did over two weeks before that and how I got the process and communication started to begin with. I replied telling them this, noting the case number, and re-sent the Game Adviser results file as well.

Is this usual? Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? How many times are you expected to submit a ticket on the same issue?

[Amhiel.6195]

@atheria.2837 said:

@GM Magister.8736 said:

@atheria.2837 said:

@Dying Oblivion.8296 said:I was asked to run an app called GameAdvisor and submit the results -- I did just that but In my email I requested that CS or at least @GM Magister.8736 confirm when he had received my GameAdvisor files because the CS team were giving other people the run around by saying they never received it

CS's do ask for tests, one sends them back but we never hear back from them again - unless we follow up and then they askfor the same test saying they never received it or they are 'working on it' and we, again, never hear back. I've sent in a few... notone was ever answered with 'ah, here's the problem' but they do ask for more and more tests or the same tests, more than once.

So, we recently uncovered the reason for this. Our support site host seems to have changed how it handles "suspicious" attachments without notifying us, which has lead to some messages including perfectly safe attachments going missing. This doesn't always happen, but when it does we will not see your reply in the ticket thread we are working with you on, which is just as annoying to us as it is to you.

We're working with them to get it corrected. But, for now, if you submit something with an attachment and don't receive a reply for some time: Please do not give up hope or assume we are ignoring you! Send a gentle reminder/followup to see if we received your attachment, and we can usually dig through the site's records and find what was sent. :)

I've been told several times that my attachments were never received... and this goes back over a year.

I've been saying this since the beginning of this issue. I've even sent screenshots. They are receiving them, but they have no clue how to remedy the situation so they are buying time with the finger pointing saying we don't know how to send attachments. I showed proof of my attachment and they just closed my ticket.