Windows 10: Weird nameless gray (or black) window appearing all the time

This started happening a few days ago. I'm not sure if it's related, but I uninstalled Acrobat DC and installed Acrobat XI and sometime after that it started. I get one of the following randomly in my Windows 10 desktop:
- "DDE Server" (or DDE Server Window, I'm not sure) which is an item in taskbar with a folder icon. You can't do anything with this, it just appears there.
- A totally gray window (1/4 size of the screen) with a white top. You can't do anything with this except you probably can quit it with alt+F4. This window has no name, no ID of any kind. It does NOT appear in NirSoft's WinList and AutoHotkey barely recognizes it as "ahk_class WorkerW" and "ahk_exe Explorer.EXE".
- A totally gray or black box which covers a part of everything (sitting on top layer). Nothing can be done to this, not even alt+F4 works.
- I also got weird problems with browsers: mouse cursor is not pointing to the place that it should (it is off a bit). Or a black bar was on top of browser, offsetting the real content.

I know this probably sounds like my OS it totally messed up. But I don't think so, something is just very buggy. I don't think I have a virus, at least Windows defender doesn't find one. I just updated BIOS after the problem started and Windows Updates are all up to date.

How do I figure out what is launching the annoying box? It just randomly appears maybe 1 minute after restarting Windows.

:)

 

Windows Updated(16299.309).KB4088776 Restart is required to complete.


Hi dalchina. Good news, I followed your suggestion and reinstalled the update and now it appears as "installed correctly" *Biggrin Maybe it was not necessary to run the Windows Update Troubleshooter or maybe if necessary. But using it I do not think it could have worsened something. The installation was very fast, unlike the first time it showed step 1 and step 2 completed.

Thanks for the suggestions and for the time to respond Best regards.


And thanks for the tip of that program, I'll have it on my list.

 

"Gray Screen of Death"

Thanks for your informative post!

I had solved my 2D & gray screen issue using advice posted by erocker (see below)
Mainly it involves creating a profile and putting higher 2D clocks:

 

Taskbar bug: switching to another window -will not appear at the front


Follow either of these steps to fix the issue with the Active window hiding behind.

Method 1:
I suggest you to disable window by hovering over it with the mouse and check if it helps. To do so I suggest you to try the below given steps and check if it helps:

• Press Windows key + X key and click on Control Panel.
• Select or click Ease of Access.
• Click or tap onEase of Access Centre.
• Click on Make the Mouse Easier to Use was uncheck Activate Window by hovering over it with the mouse.
• Check if issue is resolved.

Method 2:
I would suggest you to completely uninstall the touchpad driver and reinstall it. Kindly follow the below given steps.

• Press “Windows key + X” and click on “Device Manager”.
• In the list of devices, you should see the touchpad drivers.
• Right click on the device and then select "Uninstall".
• In the uninstall dialog, make sure you select the option to delete the driver package from the system. This causes the driver package installed earlier to be deleted.
• In the Action menu of Device manager, select “Scan for Hardware changes” option. This will cause the device driver to be reinstalled. Once the driver is installed, close all windows and restart the computer.