My Win10 PC Is Possessed! Apps Keep Starting at Random for No Apparent Reason

The last week or two, something very weird has been going on with my Windows 10 PC at work.  

At seemingly random intervals, several apps start for no apparent reason without any user intervention.  At first, I believe it was just Maps.  But now it’s expanded to Store, Calendar, News and Settings.  It tends to happen after I walk away from my PC.  

No, my co-workers aren’t playing a trick on me – I always lock my computer when I walk away from it.

Does anyone have any ideas on why apps keep mysteriously launching?

I am running 14965.rs_prelease.161104-1700.

Conversation 7 comments

  • 7223

    05 December, 2016 - 10:12 am

    <p>JimP,</p>
    <p>Couple of questions…</p>
    <p>First, is your PC actually a PC or really a laptop?&nbsp; Maybe you use a touchpad?</p>
    <p>Do you manually lock the PC or is there a timeout?</p>
    <p>Are you in a northern climate?</p>
    <p>Do you wear polyester?</p>
    <p>By now you may be getting an inkling of what I’m driving at.&nbsp; It’s getting to be winter and getting up from the desk can generate quite a charge.&nbsp; I’ve never seen it but a mouse or a trackpad can be sensitive to static charge; particularly if something with the shielding/grounding has failed.&nbsp; Only a thought and the alternative isn’t pretty to think about</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>

    • 5799

      05 December, 2016 - 1:05 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#28572">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/SteveSnow1">SteveSnow1</a><a href="#28572">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>It’s a laptop. &nbsp;It has a touchpad, but I don’t use it. &nbsp;I use a mouse instead.</p>
      <p>I manually lock the PC.<br /><br />Yes, I’m in the northern suburbs of Chicago.</p>
      <p>Yes, my pants are polyester.</p>

      • 5523

        06 December, 2016 - 7:30 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#28612">In reply to </a><a href="../../../../users/JimP">JimP</a><a href="#28612">:</a>&nbsp; lol</em></blockquote>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>

  • 5664

    Premium Member
    05 December, 2016 - 2:10 pm

    <p>This is a known issue in recent builds. You’re not doing anything, and nothing is wrong. It’ll stop happening in a later build. When? Not sure, but MS knows about it.</p>

  • 469

    Premium Member
    05 December, 2016 - 2:49 pm

    <p>I had this recently – in my case it was the Photo’s app…</p>
    <p>The ‘Solution’ that worked for me, was to make sure the app is not maximised (ie full screen) before closing it…&nbsp; Once I did that, it never came back without me actually launching it!</p>

  • 5496

    05 December, 2016 - 8:27 pm

    <p>This is a known bug with the insiders.</p>
    <p>Mine does that too with email and the store.</p>

  • 441

    Premium Member
    06 December, 2016 - 11:13 am

    <p>I had this issue for a while with my Surface book, Groove, Plex and Putty kept launching randomly. &nbsp;I think MS calls&nbsp;this phantom touch.</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <p>What mitigated it for me was to unpin as many items as I could from the taskbar. &nbsp; I left putty there as kind of a canary. &nbsp;At some point it just stopped all together, maybe 1 or two builds back. &nbsp; I think MS is still working on this though. &nbsp;</p>

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