Windows 10 minimizing any games automatically at random times

I found the culprit in my case. My full-screen games kept minimizing at 30-40 minute intervals, and always twice in a row (about 2-3 sec apart). Usually right after I would click to maximize, it would minimize again. This cycle kept repeating (to my extreme frustration.. nothing like being in Battlefield and have your screen minimize right at a critical moment!).

The offender in my case was the "Akamai Netsession" services I had running in the background (loaded when Windows loads). Some SaaS platforms use this utility (i.e. Adobe CC Cloud, Autodesk, etc.) My task manager showed 2 separate instances running. Once I killed these, the issue stopped. Now made sense why my games would minimize twice in a row. I suppose the utility is set to pole something, however doing so takes exclusive control of the active desktop (whereby minimizing your game).

It's a little tricky killing them, as when killing one instance it is loaded back again by the other. So you have to be quick about it. I have reported this issue to Akamai, but I doubt they care.

Hope this helps others!

hello all,

yes, he may have solved his problem with his computer. not all issues are the same. in this situation I faced a lot of potential problems with no apparent solution in sight. turns out I needed to return to my roots as they say. when trouble shooting a computer problem its best to approach it systematically and step by step as it were. 

first, run event viewer in the background to ascertain the true nature of the game in question minimizing. I would suspect that you are suffering from the same affliction I did, software incompatibility. an error in the event log can point you in the right direction. in my case, RGB infusion app to control my LED's and Aorus app that I used to control my GPU fans. removing both of those apps cured my issue. this is by no means a cure for everyone. what i'm suggesting is that you use the computer in a more diagnostic fashion to cure your own ills. I am not religious but this saying holds true in this situation. "give a man a fish, feed him for a day" " teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime" If I can teach a way to solve the issue your self then you become better. :-)

If you have any themes running, disable and use just a single picture.  It worked for me.  Every time a theme changed pictures the game minimized.

I have the same problem. Any suggestion did not solve the issue.

Please help.

Hi,

I was having a similar problem. Something was briefly popping up in the task bar and minimizing games. I uninstalled ASUS Smart Gesture and so far so good. Smart Gesture has something to do with touch screens, and since I don't have a touch screen on my desktop I think it was constantly crashing.

Hope this helps...