A Minimising Ghost Hidden In My Desktop?

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[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

Running Firefox I’m looking at a web page. Suddenly the Firefox window unexpectedly minimises itself revealing an identical Firefox window directly beneath it. It is as if 2 instances of Firefox with identical contents exist, one exactly covering the other, and then the top one unexpectedly minimising itself and disappearing without a trace. Afterwards I detected no unexpected behavior or changes in the apparently normal operation of the computer.

This unexpected minimising and the fact that Microsoft Defender Offline Scan didn’t work made me suspect an infection of my Win 11 21H2. An in-place upgrade (to Win 11 22H2) repaired the Offline Scan, which then gave me a clean bill of health. Other anti-virus scans also detected nothing untoward.

But the unexplained and ghostly minimising of Firefox continues happening once after every (re)boot.

So what could be causing this inconsequential minimising?

Or might it be NOT inconsequential at all?

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

• This topic was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by E Pericoloso Sporgersi.

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Hi E Pericoloso Sporgersi:

I’ve used Firefox as my default browser for several years and have never heard of this type of problem. I also did a quick search in the Firefox forum for “two instances at startup” and couldn’t find anyone reporting a similar issue.

I’d suggest you start by clearing your startup cache (Help | More Troubleshooting Information | Try Clearing the Startup Cache | Clear Startup Cache) as shown below.  If that doesn’t help then temporarily disable all your browser extensions at Tools | Add-ons and Themes … and then restart your system and see if your browser launches normally.

If your startup cache or a buggy extension isn’t the cause of your problem then step through the instructions in the support article Troubleshoot and Diagnose Firefox Problems.  Just note that if you reach Step # 5 (Refresh Firefox) in that troubleshooting guide that this will reset your Firefox profile back to it’s default state and remove your browser extensions and custom configuration settings, but it should not remove your bookmarks browsing history, passwords or cookies – see the support article Refresh Firefox – Reset Add-ons and Settings for a full list of what is and isn’t removed. If you reach Step # 5 (Refresh Firefox) you might want to skip this browser reset and move on to Step # 6 (Create a New Firefox Profile) instead so that you can recover your old profile from the Firefox Profile Manager if necessary.

Before starting any troubleshooting I’d suggest you back up your bookmarks (Bookmarks | Manage Bookmarks | Import and Backup | Backup) to a removable USB stick just in case something goes wrong and they are accidentally deleted.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3086 * Firefox v114.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23050.5-1.1.23050.3 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.31.270-1.0.2047 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279

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I don’t have a fix for you but it would perhaps help if you added the info about what version of Firefox you are using and what, if any, extensions are installed.

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Hi E Pericoloso Sporgersi:

Could you also let us know if you are still running Avast Antivirus Free in “passive mode” at the same time that Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes Premium are running together in real-time protection mode as described in post # 2407991 of your December 2021 thread Avast Free Tries to Increase Foothold.  (see EDIT below).

I’ve never had problems running Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes Premium together on my Win 10 v22H2 laptop as long as the Malwarebytes setting at General | Security | Windows Security Center | Always Register Malwarebytes in the Windows Security Center is DISABLED as shown below, but it’s possible that adding Avast Antivirus Free and/or other third-party security programs that load at Windows startup is causing unexpected glitches on your system.

Since you have a Win 11 v22H2 OS I’d suggest you temporarily prevent Malwarebyres Premium from starting at boot-up (Settings | Security | Windows Startup | Launch Malwarebytes in the Background When Windows Starts Up | DISABLE)  and re-boot to see if that fixes your Firefox problem.  If you still have other third-party security and/or disk cleaning software (e.g., and Avast Antivirus Free , SUPERAntiSpyware, CCleaner Pro, etc.) loading at boot-up then you should prevent that as well to see if your Firefox problem still occurs when Microsoft Defender is your only real-time protection.
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EDIT:

According to the Avast support article Using Passive Mode in Avast Antivirus, when Passive Mode is enabled “Avast Antivirus still receives all virus definitions and program updates that allow you to manually scan for issues on your PC, but Avast can not actively protect you.” That sounds to me like turning ON Passive Mode in Avast disables the real-time protection of Avast, but that the antivirus software still loads at boot-up and is running background tasks that could potentially interfere with your Microsoft Defender and Malwarebyyes Premium protection.
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.3086 * Firefox v114.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23050.5-1.1.23050.3 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.31.270-1.0.2047 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279

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I didn’t say I have 2 instances of Firefox. It is AS IF I had 2.
If I actually did have 2, then I would (1) see 2 instances in the taskbar and (2) I could drag the top one aside to reveal the second one beneath it. But (1) and (2) do NOT occur. It is AS IF the top one (or something else) minimizes but actually nothing does minimise. And it happens too fast to see contents in the disappearing rectangle.

The phenomenon started happening long before I re-installed Avast Antivirus Free (passive mode). I think it started before the in-place upgrade to 22H2, but I’m not sure I remember correctly.

Except for this poltergeist not actually doing anything, my machine always works perfectly fine.

Info about my computer:
Corsair One i300 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900K, 64 GB RAM, RTX 3080Ti, 2TB SSD
Windows 11 Pro 22H2, 22621.1848
Firefox 114.0.2 (64-bit) + extensions
– Adblock Plus – free ad blocker; Block YouTubeTM ads and pop-ups & fight malware!
– Avast Online Security & Privacy; Avast Browser Security and Web Reputation Plugin.
– BelDConnect; Use your Belgian elD on DSS secure platforms (DSS, IDP)
– ClearURLs; Remove tracking elements from URLs.
– Connective signing extension; This extension allows for document signing
– DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials; Privacy, simplified. Protect your data as you search and browse: tracker blocking etc …
– elD Belgium; Use the Belgian electronic identity card (elD) in Firefox
– Google Analyics Opt-Out; Blocks Google Analytics from all the sites you visit.
– I don’t care about cookies; Get rid of cookie warnings from almost all websites!
– Logitech SetPoint; Smooth scrolling for Logitech mice, requires Logitech SetPoint software
– Malwarebytes Browser Guard; The fastest and safest web browsing experience.
– Opt-out for AnalyticsTM; Prevents the Google Analytics and Tag Manager’s JavaScript APIs from collecting data …
– Search by Image; A powerful reverse image search tool, with support for various search engines, such as …
– WOT Website Security & Browsing Protection; Stay safe while browsing the web with WOT, the best multi-platform security service

Antimalware:
Microsoft Defender fully active
Malwarebytes (NOT registered in Windows Security Center)
SUPERAntiSpyware Free
Avast Free Antivirus (Passive Mode)

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

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E Pericoloso Sporgersi wrote:

I didn’t say I have 2 instances of Firefox. It is AS IF I had 2.
If I actually did have 2, then I would (1) see 2 instances in the taskbar and (2) I could drag the top one aside to reveal the second one beneath it.

On Windows 11 would you notice on the taskbar?

Try opening a second instance on purpose to see.

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b wrote:

On Windows 11 would you notice on the taskbar?

Sure you can. See my screenshot below.

b wrote:

Try opening a second instance on purpose to see.

Easy peasy. I first ran Firefox by [Doubleclick Firefox Shortcut].
I then, on purpose, opened a second identical instance of Firefox, that is by [Shift] + [Doubleclick Firefox Shortcut].

BTW, You can hit [Shift] + [Doubleclick Firefox Shortcut) multiple times and each time you get an additional Firefox instance. In fact, you can run as many instances of Firefox as you want, only limited by, I guess, the power of your computer. This works the same way with Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s edge too, and with all programs allowing multiple instances. (But the first instance always without [Shift])
See my screenshot.

Sometimes on my ultrawide monitor, having multiple Firefox windows open is much handier than one single Firefox with multiple tabs.

As for the minimiser ghost, it can ”aller se faire cuire un oeuf”.

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

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Try disabling hardware acceleration see if the window stops opening. I have seen this window too but with colored squares inside very briefly. The pop-up behavior continued to go on and disappeared with subsequent Firefox upgrades, not sure what changed to make such a window to stop opening every fresh instance of Firefox.

How disable hardware acceleration in Firefox, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1079934

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