Windows 10: Desktop blinks a few minutes after startup, then printer disappears

I installed Windows 10 version 1903 on 9/13/2019. Since then, I have experienced the following behavior. Within five or so minutes of system startup, the screen goes black for a couple of seconds, then the desktop reappears. This always happens twice in a row, a few seconds apart. Never more than twice, and never less. I thought nothing of it until today.

I have an Epson USB printer which I used today for the first time since 9/13/2019. Normally, the printer icon shows in the notification area, regardless of whether the printer is on or off. But today, I noticed that the icon was missing from the notification area. After restarting the PC, the icon reappeared, and I was able to make a print. But then the screen blinked, and after the desktop reappeared, the printer icon had disappeared!

If I go to Printers & Scanners and try to access the printer properties, I get this error:




But even worse, if I try to access Device Manager, I get a similar error:




I tried disabling Malwarebytes and restarting (as suggested in a post somewhere), but it had no effect.

:)

 

Printer icon disappeared from desktop

Hi Helen,

This might be caused by the recent changes made on your device. Can you still see if from the Start Menu or Control Panel? If yes, then we suggest that you just create a new shortcut of your printer for an easy access of printing files. Follow the steps
below:

• Go to Control Panel.
• Select Hardware and Sounds then click Devices and Printers.
  
• Choose your printer's name, right-click on it then select Create shortcut.
  

Get back to us with the outcome so we can help you out further.

 

Can't get GPU-Z to start with Windows 8.1 startup

I'm not sure how to do that. Could you list the steps for a noob?

 

Setting Default Printer via Startup Script

This looks like a good solution, and similar to some of the VB scripts I tried.. but it is a logon script. I would need something that works as a startup script. We are not mapping printers to users as they move around too much, but rather mapping to each computer.

The Link that W1ZZARD posted is good information. Sadly however, I have tried utilizing most of the commands that are available. The /c command is indeed interesting, but we are trying to map them when a computer starts up (prior to logon screen) versus just mapping them remotely. The purpose would be if we had a lab that needed the default printer changed, sure we could just send the remote command to each machine, or even remote into them ourselves and manually do it, but I was looking for a smoother alternative.

It seems like its just something that will have to be done manually and with user education.

Thanks for all the suggestions though.