On a Windows 8.1 Update computer, sometimes the desktop icons disappear. They're replaced by a small window without any content. Double-clicking the window fixes that. Any insights?
That is interesting, is that running on a dedicated GPU or integrated graphics?
I had a similar behaviour on a very old pc (Amd athlon 2000) where it turned out the graphics card was crapping out as the PC as it increased in frequency and would crash into a state of blurry rainbow coloured images when running anything graphically intensive. Switching out the Graphics card solved the problem.
Integrated
I see, I'm presuming you have tried the latest drivers / different versions?
Same on a desktop upgraded from vista. Think it might be a side effect of the transparent trick
That could probably be it and if it is not really sure how you could fix that as I prefer to do clean installs.
I guess you could use windows blinds and just hide away all the icons so it doesn't bother you :grin:.