# Black Window Popping Up on Desktop



## mapste (Feb 5, 2012)

Hi,

I'm running Windows 8.1 but live on the desktop. I am having a strange, random problem a few times a day, not specific to any particular software that I'm running. A black window about 3 inches square pops up and goes away. Initially, it stayed up about a second and there was text in the box that looked like program code to me. Now it's flashing so fast that I can see nothing. Has anybody ever seen anything like this?

I have a Dell Inspiron 5547 laptop. Most of the time I am using IE 11, MS Office 2007 (Outlook mail, Word, Excel), simple games, McAfee LiveSafe. 

This did not happen concurrent with any new software installation. I'm not sure if Windows or McAfee program updates coincided with it.

Thank you for your support.


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## Confounded Also (Aug 19, 2015)

> A black window about 3 inches square pops up and goes away. Initially, it stayed up about a second and there was text in the box that looked like program code to me.


Sounds like a Command Prompt running a Batch File or something. Why and what's triggering it is the real question.


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## mapste (Feb 5, 2012)

It looks more like debugging code.


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## VividProfessional (Apr 29, 2009)

i would be slightly concerned as to what is running. if you can get a screen grab next time it happens we may be able to help you otherwise I would run virus scan and malware scans (check the other forums for those details)


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## mapste (Feb 5, 2012)

When I posted this I was near the end of a very long cleanup process in the virus/malware cleanup forum. We got everything cleared out except this one. They had never seen the symptom before and suggested I check here.

Since then, Dell has had a problem connecting to me remotely and I have had a printer connection problem. Dell had me run a full operating system cleanup tool called All-in-one. Popup box hasn't happened for about a week, so I might be ok now. Waiting to see...


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