Ghost in the machine: Windows 11 Home edition
May 23, 2023 8:07 AM Subscribe
My new coworker keeps doing SOMETHING (but we have no idea what) that makes a small ghostly image appear on one of his monitors.
Windows 11 Home is the operating system and he's running dual monitors using a VGA-to-HDMI adapter for the second monitor.
The images are semi-transparent.
It's a different image each time, but they all look like they might be screenshots.
The image is too small (like 1"x2" on a 12"x20" monitor) to figure out what it's a screenshot of so I'm not sure if it's the same program being screenshot each time.
It appears in different places each time. Yesterday it was in the middle of his left monitor. Today it was near the upper left corner of his right monitor.
It can't be clicked on, moved, closed, or otherwise interacted with, it just sits there on top of all other applications and windows.
Rebooting the computer is the only way we've found to get rid of it.
My theory is he must be accidentally pressing some key combo (he's a clumsy typist) that's a keyboard shortcut for activating some obscure feature, like how I keep accidentally turning on Sticky Keys.
What is this "feature" and how do we turn it off? I can't explain it well enough to Google to find a support article about this problem.
Windows 11 Home is the operating system and he's running dual monitors using a VGA-to-HDMI adapter for the second monitor.
The images are semi-transparent.
It's a different image each time, but they all look like they might be screenshots.
The image is too small (like 1"x2" on a 12"x20" monitor) to figure out what it's a screenshot of so I'm not sure if it's the same program being screenshot each time.
It appears in different places each time. Yesterday it was in the middle of his left monitor. Today it was near the upper left corner of his right monitor.
It can't be clicked on, moved, closed, or otherwise interacted with, it just sits there on top of all other applications and windows.
Rebooting the computer is the only way we've found to get rid of it.
My theory is he must be accidentally pressing some key combo (he's a clumsy typist) that's a keyboard shortcut for activating some obscure feature, like how I keep accidentally turning on Sticky Keys.
What is this "feature" and how do we turn it off? I can't explain it well enough to Google to find a support article about this problem.
Some other applications have a picture-in-picture mode. Another possibility is that there is corruption in the video card driver. Checking for driver updates might help.
posted by nickggully at 8:30 AM on May 23, 2023
posted by nickggully at 8:30 AM on May 23, 2023
Sounds similar to the problem described here.
posted by alex1965 at 8:33 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by alex1965 at 8:33 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Is the second monitor using VGA input from an HDMI card output, or is it an HDMI display and the card has VGA?
Do you know what the card is?
posted by MrBobaFett at 8:34 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Do you know what the card is?
posted by MrBobaFett at 8:34 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Is it the preview you get when dragging-and-dropping tabs in Acrobat? By default, Acrobat opens new PDFs in a new tab in the existing window (which is what I usually want), but you can also drag the tabs to reorder them, or to put them in a new window. Sometimes the tab preview remains behind. To fix this, you just have to go to any Acrobat instance, and drag-and-drop another tab - even if you drop it back in the same place.
posted by yuwtze at 8:44 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by yuwtze at 8:44 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'd run a list of all processes and all services to look for culprits.
Could something be running the picture app (which changes names in versions of windows) in a transparent window?
Can you alt+tab to anything?
posted by theora55 at 3:34 PM on May 23, 2023
Could something be running the picture app (which changes names in versions of windows) in a transparent window?
Can you alt+tab to anything?
posted by theora55 at 3:34 PM on May 23, 2023
Response by poster: "Is it the preview you get when dragging-and-dropping tabs in Acrobat?"
Solved, thank you! He mentioned this morning that it seems to only happen when he's using Adobe, so based on that and your comment I did a Google image search "Adobe Acrobat tab preview" and found some screenshots that look exactly like what has been happening on his screen.
I sent him links that explain how to use the feature so hopefully that will help him figure out how to stop using it accidentally.
posted by Jacqueline at 8:35 AM on May 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
Solved, thank you! He mentioned this morning that it seems to only happen when he's using Adobe, so based on that and your comment I did a Google image search "Adobe Acrobat tab preview" and found some screenshots that look exactly like what has been happening on his screen.
I sent him links that explain how to use the feature so hopefully that will help him figure out how to stop using it accidentally.
posted by Jacqueline at 8:35 AM on May 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
figure out how to stop using it accidentally
I wouldn't worry so much about not using it, as knowing how to reset it when it happens. If he's a clumsy typist, I'd wager that that he's inadvertently triggering a drag-and-drop when selecting different tabs, by slightly moving the mouse while clicking on them. In that case, it may not be possible to prevent completely. And moving tabs to new windows is a useful productivity trick anyway.
I didn't explain the way I fix it as clearly as I'd meant to: As near as I can tell, sometimes on the completion of the "drop", Acrobat forgets to stop drawing the preview. If you start another drag-and-drop, it will draw the preview for the current action, which has the side effect of replacing the old one. (But I have definitely suffered with a thing on my screen for longer than I'd care to admit until I inadvertently worked out how to make it go away without restarting.)
posted by yuwtze at 8:53 AM on May 24, 2023
I wouldn't worry so much about not using it, as knowing how to reset it when it happens. If he's a clumsy typist, I'd wager that that he's inadvertently triggering a drag-and-drop when selecting different tabs, by slightly moving the mouse while clicking on them. In that case, it may not be possible to prevent completely. And moving tabs to new windows is a useful productivity trick anyway.
I didn't explain the way I fix it as clearly as I'd meant to: As near as I can tell, sometimes on the completion of the "drop", Acrobat forgets to stop drawing the preview. If you start another drag-and-drop, it will draw the preview for the current action, which has the side effect of replacing the old one. (But I have definitely suffered with a thing on my screen for longer than I'd care to admit until I inadvertently worked out how to make it go away without restarting.)
posted by yuwtze at 8:53 AM on May 24, 2023
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posted by Jacqueline at 8:08 AM on May 23, 2023