Background process and unresponsive taskbar

Question

Hello everyone.

A couple of weeks ago I performed a clean update to Windows 11 through the tool for USB device on my Asus N580GD. Since that moment, I often noticed the loading circle appearing near to the pointer - or in its place - as a background process is running. This is particularly annoying during the usage of Edge because the windows goes on bottom - even though nothing appears - and whenever I need to switch among multiple apps because the taskbar turns to be not responsive or the apps window fails to appear on top. Currently, the taskbar automatically hides. I disabled many apps that had the permission to work in background, installed the last updates, cleaned the taskbar register key, scanned the PC for integrity issues (Windows tool) and against virus and malware, but everything seems fine. It has a detrimental effect on performance as well because the PC stuck for a couple of seconds. The frequency is once per 5-6 minutes.

Thanks in advance for helping me.

Answer 1

Hi Kirk,

thanks for your kind reply. I'll answer to all of your questions:

• I used Windows 10 before the clean update to Windows 11.
• After turning on the PC, during the firsts couple of minutes there occur the usual loading process of the software among which the desktop icons refresh. After 5 minutes since I turn on the PC, the circle appear near the pointer. It appears once and not anymore for 20 seconds or repeatedly appearing (2-3 times per second) for ten seconds and a pause of 20-30 seconds. Frequency seems to be lower if I disable the start-up apps as Edge and Dropbox.
• Circle appears repeatedly near the pointer for a couple of seconds after a process is closed (such as closing Setting window).
• By performing a clean boot, circles appears in the same way for the firsts two minutes, then 4 times in 2 seconds after 5 minutes and the same after another minute, then nothing more. No icon refresh. Same behaviour by enabling all the Asus services (they seemed to be suspicious to me, so I wanted to have a try).
• By enabling all the services, but not the start-up apps, same initial issue.

The tests lasts around 10 minutes each.

I then noticed that my graphic card drivers wrongly detected Windows 10 as software installed, so I updated them, but with no effect.

It might worth knowing that I use a second display, but the problem is the same even using the primary one only.

Regarding drivers, scanning through a third party software, it turns they're pretty out-of-date and I don't know if it can be related with what I'm experiencing.

Thanks if you can further help me.

Answer 2

Hi,

Thanks for your post in Microsoft Community.

I understand that you have encountered a situation where the mouse keeps spinning in circles and the taskbar becomes unresponsive when using the software.

I noticed you mentioned using USB for the upgrade. Did you use Windows 10 before doing a clean install?

Usually the mouse circle indicates that there is a process in the background, or is reading data. Does the mouse rotate in circles when the computer is idle?

If it doesn't spin when the computer isn't running something, then the problem might be a slow reading of data. Is there any security protection software or device management software currently installed on the computer?

Maybe you can observe when it starts to spin and see what happens after booting, for example:

1. After turning on the machine, keep turning in circles.
2. After turning it on, turn it around every once in a while.
3. Turn around after performing any operation.

In addition, the taskbar of the computer will get stuck, it may be that the data is read slowly, or there may be something running in the background all the time.

At present, you can first observe the regularity of the circle of the mouse pointer, and then see whether it is possible that the data reading is slow or there is a problem with the system. Finally, try a clean boot to see if the taskbar is still stuck in the case of a clean boot.

The method of clean boot can refer to this:

Press Win+R, enter and run msconfig, in the Services tab, hide all Microsoft services, and disable other services.

Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager, go to the Startup tab, disable all startup items.

Then restart the computer.

Please re-enable disabled services to exit clean boot after testing.

Or this: How to perform a clean boot in Windows (microsoft.com)

Disclaimer*: A “clean boot” starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. It helps to determine whether a background program is interfering with your game or program and to isolate the cause of a problem.*

These steps of "clean boot" might look complicated at first glance. However, to avoid any trouble for you, please follow them in order and step-by step so that it will help you get you back on track.

Please feel free to let me know how it goes.

Kirk | Microsoft Community Support Specialist