Dotted Border Around Desktop Icon

RichardC said:

Every now and then I notice a dotted box around an icon on my desktop. When I reboot it goes away. It's not all that important, but my curiosity gets the better of me. Does anyone know what causes this and can it be prevented from happening again?

In reviewing this, I guess I gave you the cause, but not a solution. My solution for me is that I don't use icons on the desktop at all. In fact, I auto-hide my Taskbar to the left as well. If I want to see it > WinKey/T. Just the desktop background is all I want to see. I tried to adopt to the mouse back in W98 and again in W7, but I disliked it. It slows me down navigating. Most people won't believe that, but it's true. One just needs to use key combos. The only time I'm forced to use the mouse is in a browser.

RichardC said:

I get your gist, HipGyp. But my question is: is focus necessary to operate windows? If yes, then why can't they just alter the code so the dotted box doesn't appear. I mean isn't there something in the code that 'makes' the box appear? Just remove that and let focus run quietly in background.

You added a question. It's necessary if one uses a keyboard to navigate with. If the icon or tile doesn't highlight, no one will/can see what's in focus, yes? A modern OS must appease four types of users concerning navigation > Keyboard, touch, mouse, and voice.

I see Edwin and Computer Chicken gave solution. I gave you mine. Perhaps someone else may have another. With that said, I'll press Alt/S.

Makes a lot of sense HipGyp. I see your point completely. As far as my pc goes, I simply right click on desk top and hit refresh and it goes away. Thanks everyone for the input.

RichardC said:

Makes a lot of sense HipGyp. I see your point completely. As far as my pc goes, I simply right click on desk top and hit refresh and it goes away. Thanks everyone for the input.

Just for the record and my curiosity. Doesn't a left click on an empty space of the desktop get rid of it?

Thanks for your kind remarks Kari. I've been doing a lot of reading on this focus issue. It was introduced by Microsoft back with xp. I had a pc with xp on it and I never noticed it happening then. In fact I really haven't seen it until this latest upgrade to rs3. If may have been there on all my previous os's, but I don't recall it. Not like now. As far as HipGyp's response, I really didn't think about someone solely using the keyboard to navigate. In that situation it makes perfect sense to have focus working. But for me who uses touch and mouse as my tools for navigation, it isn't necessary to have. I just wish there was a way to turn it off. I've had my current pc for two years and it has just recently became a predominant occurrence.
HipGyp, sometimes I just left click on the desktop and it goes away. Sometimes it doesn't. I hide my task bar and as soon as my task bar hides itself, the focus box reappears. And it doesn't go away if I hit escape. But if I right click on the desktop and hit refresh, it goes away every time.

Hello,
Very interesting thoughts and fantasies about this "BUG"
I am running windows 10 most current version as of December 23, 2017, on this laptop, the first release of windows ten on a production computer,offline, Windows 10 on another system version 1609 I believe, and version, 1709 on a fourth system. Only this laptop gets updates. None of the fixes work because the icon is NOT focused and you could hit enter all day long and the only thing that will happen is a worn enter key. The "tab solution works momentarily, as soon as the cursor touches the desktop again, the icon is again, boxed.
This dotted border only shows up on the laptop and only after the current updates.
There are only 2 explanations; either windows 10 has a irritating bug, or there are hardware issues on a laptop, with touch screen, at least in my experience. It has NOT occurred on any of the other 3 systems. It is also NOT normal for windows to behave this way, as suggested, and it is NOT a focus issue. in terms of how it was explained by others here.
It is a dotted box around an "unfocused" icon. I have not found a solution as of yet, however if I do I will certainly share it, without trying to bloat my knowledge.

just wanted to add that this could also be a corrupt file(s) as well.

coz321 said:

Hello,
Very interesting thoughts and fantasies about this "BUG"
I am running windows 10 most current version as of December 23, 2017, on this laptop, the first release of windows ten on a production computer,offline, Windows 10 on another system version 1609 I believe, and version, 1709 on a fourth system. Only this laptop gets updates. None of the fixes work because the icon is NOT focused and you could hit enter all day long and the only thing that will happen is a worn enter key. The "tab solution works momentarily, as soon as the cursor touches the desktop again, the icon is again, boxed.
This dotted border only shows up on the laptop and only after the current updates.
There are only 2 explanations; either windows 10 has a irritating bug, or there are hardware issues on a laptop, with touch screen, at least in my experience. It has NOT occurred on any of the other 3 systems. It is also NOT normal for windows to behave this way, as suggested, and it is NOT a focus issue. in terms of how it was explained by others here.
It is a dotted box around an "unfocused" icon. I have not found a solution as of yet, however if I do I will certainly share it, without trying to bloat my knowledge.

Hello, coz321. Welcome to Windows TenForums.

Thanks for your insight, but I'm baffled as to why you would go to lengths to join just for two posts thus far. "At least in my experience" pretty much says it all.

Hello HippsieGypsie,
Thanks for the quick response.
If you are suggesting with " "At least in my experience" pretty much says it all." that I may not understand the issue, or that it may be just my individual experience, I would both agree and disagree. I would agree that with the computer manufacturers, hardware quality and configurations, and certainly post installation of software people install, can have the potential of creating issues that would boggle the mind of any developer. For me, on this two in one laptop, touchscreen, which I am not real familiar with mainly because I hate laptops, the boxed icon has the potential of being on this one particular system. I disagree because I have read the "solutions" of many online posts for this issue, including contacting microsoft, all of which give the same responses; "focused icon, hit tab, refresh desktop, etc." None of which are valid for this issue. I also noticed that the "solutions offered" did not help a few others, which is why I mentioned, if I find a real solution I would share . I have worked with windows from windows 3.1 on. I have also been a support team member for Linux for just over 13 years. A forum to me, is a way to report, perhaps debate, but certainly to help solve issues.
I certainly don't want to come off as a belligerent poster, frustrated perhaps:)