Windows 10: "How do you want to open this file" popup appears at random.

On Windows 10, there's an annoying popup that appears at random asking how I want to open a file. It will present a list of programs, but when I select a program to open, the program says it cannot open the file. I've seen this thing appearing and it does so independently of any programs opening or closing. It will appear in the middle of defragging, it will appear in the middle of doing a 3D render in Daz Studio, it will appear if I leave the system idle...you get the picture.

I've tried to open Task Manager with the popup in place to see which programs could be prompting its appearance, but when I click on Task Manager, the popup disappears.


Today, though, I told the popup to open the mystery file with Notepad.


For whatever reason, something is trying to open C:\Program. I can't tell if it's actually trying to open a folder or file with that name or if it's trying to open Program Files or Program Files x86.


Numerous runs through with Avast, Malwarebytes, and the Malicious Software Removal Tool have gotten me nowhere. This installation of Windows 10 is two months old following a hard drive failure. My programs were installed from scanned and presumably clean installers I've had backed up from earlier, and this problem hasn't appeared in the previous install of Windows 10, so I'm all kinds of confused. What the hey?

:)

 

Random Popups Windows 10

Hi Microsoft,

As the title suggested, I am currently encountering the issue where random popups occurred. It would seems like it was a command prompt and it randomly appeared and closes immediately. Is there any way to resolve this issue?

Thank you.

 

File Explorer jump list doesn't consistently show location popups

Thanks for your reply.

Whatever "it" is exactly, all I know is, it does not behave consistently. This is so across multiple systems. Also, it isn't just recent items, but pinned items that fail to produce the popup on mouse over (when they should).

If the File Explorer setting you're referring to is "Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items," I already have that turned on.

Based on my tests, I tend to think this is a bug. Did you try reproducing it?

1. Right click File Explorer in taskbar to open the jump list.
2. Mouse over any of the pinned or recent folders and see if the popup with the location path appears (as shown in the screenshot with the original post).
3. If it does appear, close out of the jump list by left clicking anywhere outside of it.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until you find the popups not appearing. In my experience, it always occurs, even if not right away. And all too often when I need them most.

 

opening .dds files with gimp

Simply, HOW? I got the DDS plugin but the POS wont open DDS files still. Can someone give me a step-by-step rundown of how to install the DDS plugin for gimp so I know if I'm missing something?