T
Timothy Retasson
At random times throughout the day ... most often when my Lenovo P50 laptop comes out of sleep, or an application is opened (but not always), a background process named "COM Surrogate" will pull focus away from the active window for about a second, then return it, then pull it, then return it, etc. This can continue for a few seconds, or as much as 30-45 seconds. During this time, every time the process pulls focus away from the active window, the title bar of the window will go gray, and any typing that is happening at the time will not be recorded. For instance if I am typing "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their county." the application might display "w istime all gmen ome aid oir cy" skipping any characters that were typed while focus was pulled away from the active window.
Dragging a window or trying to select an item from a dropdown menu while this is happening will return the window to its original location or close the dropdown menu.
While this is happening, I can view the COM Surrogate process appearing and disappearing in the Task Manager Processes window under Background processes.
I have also found that if, while the process is pulling focus, I copy (Ctrl-C), and then later paste into a text reader, the following is what was copied:
[Window Title]
COM Surrogate
[Main Instruction]
COM Surrogate has stopped working
[Content]
Windows is checking for a solution to the problem...
[Cancel]
I have found only one way to reproduce a portion of this problem consistently under all circumstances. If in the Task Bar I click on the search icon (magnifying glass), the COM Surrogate process will pull focus away once only.
This behavior has occurred since the installation of Windows 10, and only since then.
This appears to be exactly the problem that user KevinM267 had in the now locked thread in the community forum that can be found by searching: "windows-10-com-surrogate-turns-on-and-off"
In my case, I have looked for solutions and have tried an article on WindowsReport that can be found by searching "Fix Problems with COM Surrogate on Windows 10"
Options 5, 9, 4, 6 were tried, including:
Adding COM Surrogate to Data Execution Prevention exclusion list
Switch to List or Details view / disable thumbnails
Disable thumbnails and use Process Monitor to find problematic file
Re-register dll files using Command Prompt
I have also followed the recommendation of Yashwanth Kotakuri in the previous Microsoft Community post, disabling services and performing a Clean Boot.
In all cases, the problem eventually returned.
Can anyone provide a solution or a suggestion for troubleshooting tips?
Continue reading...
Dragging a window or trying to select an item from a dropdown menu while this is happening will return the window to its original location or close the dropdown menu.
While this is happening, I can view the COM Surrogate process appearing and disappearing in the Task Manager Processes window under Background processes.
I have also found that if, while the process is pulling focus, I copy (Ctrl-C), and then later paste into a text reader, the following is what was copied:
[Window Title]
COM Surrogate
[Main Instruction]
COM Surrogate has stopped working
[Content]
Windows is checking for a solution to the problem...
[Cancel]
I have found only one way to reproduce a portion of this problem consistently under all circumstances. If in the Task Bar I click on the search icon (magnifying glass), the COM Surrogate process will pull focus away once only.
This behavior has occurred since the installation of Windows 10, and only since then.
This appears to be exactly the problem that user KevinM267 had in the now locked thread in the community forum that can be found by searching: "windows-10-com-surrogate-turns-on-and-off"
In my case, I have looked for solutions and have tried an article on WindowsReport that can be found by searching "Fix Problems with COM Surrogate on Windows 10"
Options 5, 9, 4, 6 were tried, including:
Adding COM Surrogate to Data Execution Prevention exclusion list
Switch to List or Details view / disable thumbnails
Disable thumbnails and use Process Monitor to find problematic file
Re-register dll files using Command Prompt
I have also followed the recommendation of Yashwanth Kotakuri in the previous Microsoft Community post, disabling services and performing a Clean Boot.
In all cases, the problem eventually returned.
Can anyone provide a solution or a suggestion for troubleshooting tips?
Continue reading...