"application has been blocked from accessing graphics hardware"

So I believe I fixed this issue after dealing with it for ~2 weeks and going through frustrated googling. I have an NVIDIA 860m gtx and im not sure if it's different for GUI's. It's only been about 6 hours tho, so this could be a temporary fix. First off, you need to go into control panel, click hardware and sound, and go to NVIDIA control panel. Go to "Adjust image settings" and move the slider either to the middle or all the way to the left. This basically helps your GUI focus less on the quality of the game and more on keeping it stable. It will slightIy lower the quality of edges in your games, but I'd rather play it than for it to look good. I don't know if this helped at all, but while experimenting I also went to the PhysX tab there and set my PhysX processor to my NVIDIA graphics card. Hopes this helps you and me get rid of this **** problem no one else has looked into fixing!

I have been through this for years now, originally it was 'display adapter has stopped working but has recovered" On windows 7 home 32, Strange thing is I have replaced everything, originally I didn't know what the problem was, so I through money at it after I couldn't get it to work.( Certified Computer Technician)

I have replaced the entire system over time, I have been through 3 video cards AMD and Nvidia, 3 OS versions, Windows 7-32, 8-64, 8.1-64, trust me I have tried everything known to man, over the years, but on all these same system setups I have also installed various versions of linux, Ubuntu, Xubuntu , Lubuntu, Puppy, Mint, Fedora OPENSuse...None of them had the problem. Originally I down graded to Windows XP NO problems. This is a Microsoft issue period!  3 video cards from 3 different manufactures, from both AMD and Nvidia. Either their drivers equally do not work with  Windows, or there is a problem in Windows, Im sure they will blame each other.  In the end I currently have no other option, I am going to chuck this computer in the garbage and start over,  this is my second rebuild, I have 2, the other one works fine, I even swapped hardware and driver between the 2 over the years to try to get it to work, I currently combined all the higher end parts into the 2nd build, and I am now going to throw $800 worth of computer in the trash, because of a multi year problem with Windows, since Windows 7 Home 32.

EXTREME BS!

Update your Intel 520 graphics driver to the newest version to see if that helps.

Hi all so I was having the same exact issue and I was ready to send in my vid card for a new one, until on a geforce forum one guy suggested turning off windows firewall. I did it and now I haven't had the error all day long. System runs flawlessly.

EDIT: After about a week, I experienced the same issues. I read somewhere that the problem could be an improperly seated graphics card. He said he sat his computer on its side to fix his issue. I did the same thing after not even youtube could work without my computer crashing. Now I've been able to watch youtube and play games flawlessly. I'm not sure if firewall was part of the issue, but I dont really need it anyways.

So set your desktop on its side or properly seat the graphics card the best you can. If none of these work, you might have to clean the connections on the graphics card. I know someone somewhere mentioned how, I'm just too lazy to look it up lol

i had my doubt it was microsoft's issue. thanks for confirming it

i intend to switch to steam OS when it's released.