Games are minimized to desktop

[dangeorgescu88]

For some days, I encounter a weird phenomenon, where my games are automatically minimized at random times, and the desktop is shown. After installing a process logger, I find these entries at the time when the event happens:

Code: [Select]

12/30/2017 11:29:28
Process: [8648] C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\setup\aswOfferTool.exe
Username/Domain: [windows user folder]/DESKTOP-R9DF2R2
CommandLine: "C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\setup\aswOfferTool.exe" -checkChrome
MD5 Hash: F54FABEB4834EAA33E53E7EECD02383E
Bitness: 32-bit
Publisher: AVAST Software
Description: Avast Offer Installation Tool
Version: 17.9.3761.0
Integrity Level: High
Signer: AVAST Software s.r.o.
System Process: False
Protected Process: False
Metro Process: False
Parent: [2620] C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastSvc.exe


[Process Creation]

12/30/2017 11:29:28
Process: [8912] C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastUI.exe
Username/Domain: [windows user folder]/DESKTOP-R9DF2R2
CommandLine: "C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastUI.exe" --type=renderer --disable-gpu-compositing --disable-pinch --no-sandbox --primordial-pipe-token=F5C53A62102BABC965FB8E684ABAF040 --lang=en-US --lang=en-US --log-file="C:\Users\[windows user folder]\AppData\Roaming\AVAST Software\Avast\log\cef_log.txt" --log-severity=error --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/57.3.2987.1601 Safari/537.36 Avastium (17.9.2322)" --proxy-auto-detect --disable-webaudio --mute-audio --force-wave-audio --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer --no-sandbox --disable-webgl --blacklist-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas --disable-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-layers --disable-accelerated-video-decode --blacklist-webgl --disable-bundled-ppapi-flash --disable-flash-3d --enable-aggressive-domstorage-flushing --enable-media-stream --allow-file-access-from-files=1 --pack_loading_disabled=1 --device-scale-factor=1 --num-raster-threads=2 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --content-image-texture-target=0,0,3553;0,1,3553;0,2,3553;0,3,3553;0,4,3553;0,5,3553;0,6,3553;0,7,3553;0,8,3553;0,9,3553;0,10,3553;0,11,3553;0,12,3553;0,13,3553;0,14,3553;0,15,3553;1,0,3553;1,1,3553;1,2,3553;1,3,3553;1,4,3553;1,5,3553;1,6,3553;1,7,3553;1,8,3553;1,9,3553;1,10,3553;1,11,3553;1,12,3553;1,13,3553;1,14,3553;1,15,3553;2,0,3553;2,1,3553;2,2,3553;2,3,3553;2,4,3553;2,5,3553;2,6,3553;2,7,3553;2,8,3553;2,9,3553;2,10,3553;2,11,3553;2,12,3553;2,13,3553;2,14,3553;2,15,3553;3,0,3553;3,1,3553;3,2,3553;3,3,3553;3,4,3553;3,5,3553;3,6,3553;3,7,3553;3,8,3553;3,9,3553;3,10,3553;3,11,3553;3,12,3553;3,13,3553;3,14,3553;3,15,3553 --disable-webrtc-hw-vp8-encoding --disable-gpu-compositing --service-request-channel-token=F5C53A62102BABC965FB8E684ABAF040 --renderer-client-id=3 --mojo-platform-channel-handle=3268 /prefetch:1
MD5 Hash: 7891EA436E353768BAA279317A597CA1
Bitness: 32-bit
Publisher: AVAST Software
Description: Avast Antivirus
Version: 17.9.3761.0
Integrity Level: Medium
Signer: AVAST Software s.r.o.
System Process: False
Protected Process: False
Metro Process: False
Parent: [624] C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastUI.exe
Parent CommandLine: AvastUI.exe /nogui

Can this be caused by Avast? If so, how do I fix this?

My OS is Windows 10 Home Edition (with fall creators update) and I use Avast Free Antivirus.

[REDACTED]

I haven’t done the process logger thing, but I get this nearly every 30 minutes. I have done some testing to make sure it was Avast and surely enough only happened when Avast was installed. My post is also currently on the front page. Feel free to have a look and tell me if this is similar. We are currently speculating on what this could be but your post may also provide extra details.

Is there any consistency like the every 30 minutes I get it or does it seem random? A guy replied to me and speculated it was a second AvastUI.exe opening in the background. There is a part in the most recent release notes that mentions a second AvastUI process may appear. Maybe it is linked somehow?

[dangeorgescu88]

Yeah, it runs multiple times, sometimes every 30 minutes, sometimes less. It's the same two processes aswOfferTool.exe and AvastUI.exe.

[REDACTED]

I really hope this gets fixed. I game a fair amount and it is ruining my experience. This seems to be from when they fixed an issue in the previous version according to the release log pinned in this forum.

Thanks for your post and confirming my tests, I also hope this is sorted soon. Because I had to go back WD and Malwarebytes combination until this is fixed.

[dangeorgescu88]

You're welcome. I'm glad other people are also reporting this. I'll wait until they'll hopefully fix this. I won't try renaming or blocking them, since this might mess the whole AV.

[REDACTED]

You're welcome. I'm glad other people are also reporting this. I'll wait until they'll hopefully fix this. I won't try renaming or blocking them, since this might mess the whole AV.

 Yes best leave it alone as this doesn’t break scanning or how Avast works. Don’t mess with file names or files.

[avragorn]

I am having the same problem since last tuesday december 26th.
The Game Mode is On, I added the games to the Game Mode, I added Steam.exe too in case it helped, but the problem still occurs 
I hope it will get fixed very soon because it is very disturbing when playing, especially when playing multiplayers games like "Counter Strike"

[REDACTED]

I am having the same problem since last tuesday december 26th.
The Game Mode is On, I added the games to the Game Mode, I added Steam.exe too in case it helped, but the problem still occurs 
I hope it will get fixed very soon because it is very disturbing when playing, especially when playing multiplayers games like "Counter Strike"

I don’t think it is related to Game Mode or that Game Mode would help the issue. I’ve tried it with Silent Mode in to avoid offers and notifications during games and this didn’t help. It seems very likely it is something to do with the be second process opening. This apparently happens according to MartinZ pinned release post. I think that’s where the problem starts, especially when we see the process created at the time of minimise from the OP.

[avragorn]

Yes, @lgreg, I wrote about the Game Mode only in case some AVAST technicians or some moderators had asked me if I activated the Game Mode. So it is on, ... it is being on since last march or april.
So yes, the problem seems not related to Game Mode and that Game Mode doesn't help to fix the issue.