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Blinking/Flashing Icons on Desktop PC
Hi:
I am experiencing blinking/flashing of several icons that are located on my Win10-64 Pro desktop PC's screen and icons that are pinned to within the taskbar. The PC is a DELL XPS 8700 desktop. I think my PC has Windows 10 version 1803 installed on 5/19/2018, and am getting updates automatically from Microsoft.
Observations:
When booting the PC, after the login screen, it is taking an unusual amount of time to load the "image" part of the desktop icons; the filenames in text appear first and quickly, and then a delay occurs before the icon images are "painted" onto the monitor's screen. I also noticed that while having file manager opened, the same file names blink in the directory structure pane, at the far left. Just now noticed, as I am writing this, that while using Internet Explorer browser, blinking has stopped, taskbar icons have disappeared and replaced with blank, box outlines, no response when clicking on a desktop icon; this happened once before and I had to reboot PC to get control of taskbar back.
What I have tried thus far and results:
- I ran the inbuilt DELL diagnostics, and all hardware passed the "thorough" tests.
- I followed instructions given in this YouTube video: Windows 10 - How to Fix Screen Flashing and Flickering Issue - YouTube, and used msconfig to locate and uncheck the boxes for (1) WindowsErrorReporting and (2) ProblemsReportandSolutions. I also used this video's instructions to uninstall iCloud. The result of doing that is, possibly, a slow down in the blinking rate of icons within the taskbar and on the desktop, but the flashing continues. This was done during Windows normal mode (while icons were blinking); I have yet to attempt these same steps while in Windows Safe Mode.
- I then followed instructions given in this YouTube video: Disable Flashing Taskbar buttons or icons on Windows 10 taskbar - YouTube, and used regedit to locate (1) ForegroundFlashCount and (2) ForegroundLockTimeout and reset each of those to 0 (zero). The result of doing that is no improvement/change in the flashing icons.
- I also used Windows Restore to go back to 4 OCT 2018. That has not helped, either.
I think there was an automatic windows update done on my PC, overnight sometime after 5th OCT. I would like to know how to go about identifying and undoing the last Windows update? and how to disallow automatic updates from Microsoft?
I do not know what to do next. Any help would be appreciated.
TNX.
VinceB.
Last edited by VinceB; 13 Oct 2018 at 10:44.