Windows detects no mouse clicks inside a small area of the screen

A strange problem has developed on my Windows 10 machine. When I'm in Windows, if I click inside a certain area in the centre of the screen, the mouse click does not register, and if the cursor should change based on the content I'm hovering over, it doesn't.

Here is a demonstration of what I mean. In this GIF, I move my mouse into the area and attempt to select some text, but nothing happens. When I then move my mouse out of the area, the cursor changes to the correct "text selector" cursor and I can select the text fine.

Demo

The mouse wheel and clicks (left, right and middle) don't work while the mouse is in this area. There is a short delay after Windows startup before this problem begins, and it also doesn't occur on the Windows lock screen. I have two displays, but only my primary display is affected. How can I get my cursor to work properly again?

Aaron Christiansen

Posted 2016-05-18T06:59:16.407

Reputation: 584

If you disconnect primary display does it occur in the other one? (if you swap displays does it occur on the same monitor, or still on the primary display?) When this started to happen? Did you changed anything on the pc around that time? – Máté Juhász – 2016-05-18T07:11:34.517

Maybe it is something like this or that.

– Kamil Maciorowski – 2016-05-18T07:13:39.537

@MátéJuhász It started today, and I haven't changed anything. I'll test with disconnecting displays as soon as I can and then update my answer. – Aaron Christiansen – 2016-05-18T07:41:11.007

Answers

The problem must've been caused by some sort of adware program, because I ran ADWCleaner and the problem was instantly resolved without the need for even a restart.

Aaron Christiansen

Posted 2016-05-18T06:59:16.407

Reputation: 584

Set this as solution, to mark the question to be solved. – davidbaumann – 2016-05-18T15:39:30.557

1@davidbaumann I need to wait 2 days before I can do that, because it's my own answer. – Aaron Christiansen – 2016-05-18T16:49:09.660

Reboot helped me too. Mine started after a reboot after a video driver install. – Davbog – 2019-07-25T21:24:39.280

Ran ADWCleaner and the problem disappeared. – ivan_bilan – 2019-10-12T19:45:15.903

If you minimize everything (so as to not accidentally close the wrong application) then click into the empty space and press alt + f4 it will close that invisible application that's running.

Roger Hernandez

Posted 2016-05-18T06:59:16.407

Reputation: 161

1It worked for me. I was really wondering what could have caused it. How to detect that application? – Jayapal Chandran – 2019-05-02T14:51:29.613

19This version was MY issue. Invisible window "on top". No malware, just SLACK. Minimized, then moved mouse across screen until right click gave "wrong" menu or back for "right" menu.
To find app, I ran Windows Spy from AutoHotKey and again moved the mouse over desktop until Spy showed the name of the app (Slack). Stopped all Slack processes and problem disappeared. Generally I can run Slack with no issue. – HerbM – 2019-08-14T20:39:28.537

13@HerbM It was slack for me too. Simply quit that from system tray. Everything works fine again. – bytestorm – 2019-08-20T18:18:56.493

3I had the same issue with Slack as you... – suchoss – 2019-10-11T18:43:47.233

5The same here, Slack was the problem. Killing slack.exe from task manager solved the problem. – Tides – 2019-10-14T10:06:44.617

I had this problem in a band down the right hand side of my secondary monitor - also turned out to be an invisible Slack window. Used the process selector in Fiddler to hover over the area, and it told me the app involved. Fixed by killing all Slack processes. Doesn't seem to recur when I restart Slack - we'll see after the next reboot. – Peter – 2019-10-14T14:36:05.953

Slack here too. – euDennis – 2019-10-16T12:09:29.503

Slack here as well, however the alt-f4 trick did not work, I used the command prompt command, taskkill /im slack.exe /f and it resolved the issue. – Daniel – 2019-10-20T21:43:46.000

1Simply closing and opening Slack using the taskbar icon worked for me, no need to kill anything. – Jorrit Schippers – 2019-10-23T07:29:14.780

@HerbM "No malware, just SLACK." With the memory hogging, random bouts of ~100% CPU usage forcing a restart, and this invisible window issue, I think it's safe to start calling it malware. – Jacob Stamm – 2019-11-06T18:36:51.087

I had the same problem. In my case it was a malfunctioning of the AVIRA virus scanner and the area was in the top left corner of the screen. It obviously tried to open an ad window but the script got stuck.

I installed another virus scanner, deinstalled AVIRA and now everything is fine again.

It cost me about 4 hours to figure out what was actually going on... :-(

vonjd

Posted 2016-05-18T06:59:16.407

Reputation: 133

Did you just upgrade to windows 10? Try installing the latest version of logitech setpoint
http://support.logitech.com/en_us/software/setpoint

OutOfTheBox

Posted 2016-05-18T06:59:16.407

Reputation: 100

Thanks for answering, but no, I've been on Windows 10 for a while now, from a clean install. – Aaron Christiansen – 2016-05-18T07:39:26.757

-1

I know this thread is old but thought that I'd add that I was having this problem and after reading this thread I went into my settings and turned off the pop up blocker and the problem was instantly fixed

Angela

Posted 2016-05-18T06:59:16.407

Reputation: 1