OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration flashes a window every hour

Anonymous
2017-04-15T05:19:15+00:00

Is there a really, really good reason that the "OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration" task (see it in Task Scheduler, Microsoft, Office) must run every hour?  This is what it says that it does: "This task initiates Office Background Task Handler, which updates relevant Office data."

I ask, because it runs officebackgroundtaskhandler.exe in such a way that it flashes a window (itself) on the screen. Only instantaneously to be sure, but it's noticeable, especially once you catch onto what's happening. You can run the task manually if you want to see it without waiting.

Why doesn't the task use one of the many tricks to hide a window from displaying?

Insider Fast on Win10.

Microsoft 365 Insider | Install, activate, and update | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-05-30T14:37:13+00:00

( Update 6/7/17 - PaulSey... )

The fix is now available in mainstream builds 16.8210.2075 released on 6/6/17

This issue is fixed starting with build 16.0.8201.2025 which is now available as the latest update for those participating in the Office Insiders Slow program. It will be included in a future update for those not participating in Insiders.

For more information on joining Office Insiders see the Office Insider page.

Thank you everyone for reporting this issue!

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-05-31T22:48:21+00:00

    I have the same problem, but I do not have Office365, but "Microsoft Office Home and Student 2016 - de-de" Ver. 16.0.8067.2115 (so I have it not only for a year) 16 so I cannot enter "Office Insider, so I am not able to solve this problem this way. Is there another way to install a fixed version, without having to buy Ofice365 ? Or could I potentially get access to the fixed version, if it is usually only available to Office365 or newer Office users ?

    Please reply!

    Ps.: I am running Win10 Home, if this information is important in any way.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-05-31T21:14:55+00:00

    This issue is fixed starting with build 16.0.8201.2025 which is now available as the latest update for those participating in the Office Insiders Slow program. It will be included in a future update for those not participating in Insiders.

    Does that mean we non-Insiders are going to have to put up with this for at least the next three weeks until the next update is sent out?  This topic was started six weeks ago.  There is no excuse for an update to be sent out to us last week that still has this issue, causing a problem for non-Insiders that didn't have a problem prior to the update!

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-05-31T19:46:04+00:00

    This was driving me insane, it took me forever to figure out it was the office background updater doing this, it took focus away from any program I was running, including games that would crash every ¤%"#% time, and at the same exact time code,  HH:MM:SS XX:28:38 Every hour, at exactly 28 minutes and 38 seconds it would crash games, and take away focus from programs, flashing a CMD window for .5 of a second. I was getting more and more paranoid, running one antivirus program after another, tearing my software to bits, installing process monitoring programs, I finally nailed the ¤#"#%"%&. WHY IN GOD*S GREEN EARTH WAS THERE NO MENTION OF THIS IN THE EVENT VIEWER, ANYWHERE?? 

    Also I just became an office insider, like 10 minutes ago because it says the latest update is supposed to fix this.  I've been plagued with this for at least 1 week

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-05-31T19:24:50+00:00

    This is not exclusively an Office Insider programme problem.  It is utter nonsense to claim that it is. I have the latest Creator Build, including all updates, installed on two Win 10 64 bit machines.  One is an Asus Laptop, the other is self built desktop PC.  Both are showing this annoying officebackgroundtaskhandler.exe CMD dialogue pop up every hour.

    MS should stop trying to blame it on its Insider Program and get it sorted.

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