Windows 10 Browsers no longer work properly...timeframe seems related to large cummulative Windows updates

  • Thread starter Thread starter earlyvirginia
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earlyvirginia

Strange little problem has started recently and am beginning to wonder if the common denominator may be related to fairly recent large Microsoft upgrades.

I’ve used IBM, then Lenovo ThinkPad’s with Windows about every day since the mid 90’s.
And used icons pinned onto the task-bars of those ThinkPads since the beginning, including browsers like Internet Explorer, Chrome, FireFox, etc.

I keep ThinkPad Hardware, Firmware, & Software updates current, Norton & Malwarebytes running all the time, etc. Plus, I’ve always set up / used my PCs with ‘double-clicking’.


A few weeks ago I noticed when I double-clicked the Firefox icon on the task-bar like I’ve done untold thousands of time, the browser window would open with the cursor blinking in the search box like always, but the search box would no longer just automatically allow me to start typing.
I had to double-click in it again to make it come alive so to speak, then I could type.
Oddly, if I “single-clicked” the browser task-bar icon…(which I never do)…the browser search box allowed typing immediately like it should.


So then I pinned Internet Explorer, then Chrome icons to the task-bar and they failed the same way as the Firefox browser, so it’s not a specific browser problem.


NOTE 1:
All other non-browser task bar icons that I double-click to launch their function, all work normally.
Only the browsers fail to function properly with double-clicking their task-bar icons.
( there are no other typing / mouse click related problems with anything else what-so-ever )


NOTE 2:
If I download and put a shortcut for any of those browsers right on the desktop and double-click them there, they each open normally and typing is allowed immediately as it normally should.

NOTE 3:
FWIW, I can also launch a browser from the task-bar icon, then go to the upper left corner of the screen and click the “Reload The Page” symbol…and that also then allows typing in the search box normally.


Summary to the best of my knowledge:
Problem is limited to browsers, with multiple browsers failing / acting the same way.

If I double-click launch any browser from its task-bar icon, I cannot start typing immediately:
I have to double-click in the search-box then it’ll let me start typing;
Or I can go up and click the “Reload The Page” icon and then start typing;

( PS: and I can "single click" the task-bar icon ( which I never do ) and the browser opens and works normally )

Problem started within the past couple months on two different ThinkPad’s…a perfectly running 3 year old P51 and a fairly new P52 ThinkPad.


The main thing I think of at this point is there’s a common denominator that happened in the past couple months...possibly the fairly recent large windows cumulative updates that have come out.


Hoping the Microsoft brain trust here might have some experience / knowledge about this strange multiple browser related problem...thanks in advance.

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