# Solved: There is an odd un-clickable area on my Win 7 desktop!!!



## DContrarian (May 7, 2012)

Dear all, please excuse the n00b.

Posting in this sub-forum doesn't mean i think it's specifically a hardware problem, whether hardware or software is precisely what i'm hoping to find out. also, i've done a search on this topic, and the only relevant result thread is closed, concerning a different version of windows, and has some differences to my experience.

There is a small unclickable area on my desktop, as shown by the following screen grab: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o6o9dw9rdwcv9ge/Capture.JPG

Whenever the mouse moves over the marked area, icons are not shaded like they usually are when mouse-overed, and all kinds of clicks (incl band-box, click & drag etc) don't work. I can still move icons in & out of that area because some parts of each grid 'square' are outside the 'dead' zone.

The funniest thing is, it only applies WHEN VIEWING THE DESKTOP. when other windows are on top, the whole screen works fine & buttons etc occupying that area can be clicked as normal. This makes me think it's not a hardware issue, but what do i know.

Any help will be much appreciated, thanks!


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## DContrarian (May 7, 2012)

I thought it might be useful to use this related thread as a cross-reference:
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/989356-unclickable-area-within-display.html

There are differences though, so please use my OP as the most accurate description of the problem.

One more symptom i forgot to say: like this other user, if i try to drag an icon to the 'dead' zone, it gives me a null symbol.


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## Tanis (May 30, 2006)

The link to the picture isn't working for me.


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Absolutely not a hardware problem, I've moved you to "All Other Software".

You have an icon there that looks like a 7Zip installation, maybe its the problem. Go to Start(the Windows Circle), then to your username at the top and click on it, it'll open a folder with folders including Documents and Pictures and one for Desktop. Find that file and delete it.

Or more likely you have an invisible window in that area. If you ALT TAB, is there anything funny running? Do you have any Asus software installed?


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## DContrarian (May 7, 2012)

Thanks so much Tanis and Triple6!

Triple6: Wow it looks like you were dead right about the invisible window, thanks! I never knew there was such a thing before you educated me. I never use alt-tab either. And just like u said, there is this window labelled "Form1" that doesn't belong to any app that i ran myself. Also, further suggesting it's a window, the problem area is now normal, and although i didn't exactly find another 'dead zone', i'm sure it's because the phantom window shifted.

Do you have any idea how to get rid of the window? i don't have any Asus software, i assembled my PC myself and there are no Asus components. OEM Windows 7 installation.

Appreciate if you could spare the time for follow-up, but thanks!


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

It'll take some troubleshooting, using MSCONFIG you may be able to disable the startup items and find the offending program, but it could be launching other ways too such as Scheduled Tasks.

Also see this, it may help: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...desk-top/ce428218-e749-401e-ab1d-28bc1ca814aa


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## DContrarian (May 7, 2012)

Thanks Triple6 again, the link u gave had exactly the same problem as me, and one of the replies identified it as related to a Windows gadget that i was also using. uninstalled that gadget and everything's fine. thanks much!


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

Glad you found the culprit :up:


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

You can mark your thread "solved" if you are done with this thread.


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