Solved

pat

Weird “Black Box” Flickering on Desktop (SOLVED—The Trick No Guides Mentioned!)

So, I just went through the most annoying (but now kinda funny) tech issue ever, and wanted to share my experience for anyone else tearing their hair out.

The Problem:
Out of nowhere, every 10-30 seconds, a tiny black rectangle would flash in the upper left corner of my screen for about half a second. Sometimes it was thin and horizontal, sometimes a bit wider. It never stayed long enough to really screenshot, but it was incredibly distracting.

What I Tried (Based on Every Forum/Post/Youtube Video):

Disabled hardware acceleration in Chrome, Discord, and Spotify (since I thought maybe it was one of them).
Updated my graphics drivers (NVIDIA RTX 3060, so I used GeForce Experience to get the latest).
Checked for any “ghost” apps running (used Task Manager → Details → sorted by CPU and GPU usage… nothing unusual).
Ran SFC /scannow and DISM commands in case of file corruption.
Tried changing my display refresh rate and resolution.
Booted in Safe Mode (where, annoyingly, the issue didn’t happen).
Scanned for malware (Malwarebytes and Defender both came up clean).
Set up a new Windows user profile just to check if it was something in my profile (nope).

What Actually Fixed It (and Really Hope This Helps Someone):

After all that, I decided to check Task Scheduler on the off chance something weird was launching in the background. Lo and behold—a task called “OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration” was set to run every few minutes. I disabled it out of curiosity, AND THE FLICKERING STOPPED.

Apparently, there’s this task that runs as part of Microsoft Office updates/background sync, and on some machines/screens, it causes a momentary black rectangle up top. I don’t even actively use Office programs on this machine, but it was installed as part of the Windows OEM bloat.

So, here’s what I recommend:

Hit Windows key, search for “Task Scheduler.”
Go to Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Office.
Soak in all the weirdly scheduled stuff, then select “OfficeBackgroundTaskHandlerRegistration.”
Right-click and “Disable.”
Reboot to make sure the issue’s gone.

If someone needs this enabled, I’ve read you can reschedule it to run less often or only at specific triggers rather than constantly.

Insights:

Before reinstalling graphics drivers or Windows, check scheduled tasks for funky behaviors!
Not every display glitch is a graphics issue; sometimes it’s a background process grabbing screen focus for a split second.
If it doesn’t happen in Safe Mode, it’s likely not hardware or drivers, but more likely background programs or scheduled tasks.

If anyone else had the same weird flickering black box, let me know if this worked!
Hope this saves someone a night of frustration.

TechGuru123

That’s a great catch—the Task Scheduler angle barely gets mentioned anywhere, but it clearly solves this weird flicker for a lot of people. For anyone hesitant to disable tasks entirely, setting the task to run only on logon or manually might be a safer bet. If anyone else’s flicker comes back after a Windows or Office update, definitely double-check if the task re-enabled itself! Thanks for sharing the fix—it’s a real time-saver.

digimaven

That’s a super helpful tip! For anyone who needs Office tasks but wants to avoid the flicker, you can also try setting the task to run only when plugged in, or adding a delay so it’s less intrusive. Strange that something so minor can be so annoying. Thanks for sharing—definitely going to keep an eye on Task Scheduler quirks from now on!

DiskCleanupDynamo

It’s wild how something meant for background upkeep can still mess with visible stuff on-screen. Makes me wonder what other “invisible” tasks might cause weird glitches like this! Has anyone seen other odd visual bugs tied to scheduled tasks before?