The system randomly stops responding to mouse clicks.

suslio 0 Reputation points
2026-10-04T14:29:12.1466667+00:00

At a completely random moment (almost always accompanied by open Chrome or Edge) the ability to use left and right mouse buttons is lost, the system works absolutely perfectly when navigating with the help of TAB, Enter and Spacebar, but when using the right- and left-click mouse, the window you're trying to click on becomes inactive, as if you were clicking on a different window. This error has been haunting me for several months now, and I've tried everything to fix it. Updates didn't fix this, nor did a complete software cleanup, it's unknown what's causing this problem. And I really have no idea what to do, the only option left is to reinstall the system, but I would like to do without this, because saving all the files is a rather long and complicated task. Scrolling also works perfectly, even on an "inactive" window. This can happen at any time, while playing a game, while working in graphics editors, or in anything at all, even just on desktop. It doesn't disappear after a reboot. It only disappears if you completely turn off the PC and turn it on again after half an hour. I'm desperate, I have no idea what to do.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures
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  1. Kai-H 28,065 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-10-05T09:15:09.46+00:00

    Hi, suslio

    I can see why another mouse checklist felt unhelpful. Because the pointer and scrolling still work but clicking makes a window inactive, I’d first check whether an invisible window is taking the clicks. That has been identified in similar cases, though it is not yet confirmed on this PC.

    Here are some suggestions you can try:

    When it happens, press Alt + Tab and look for a blank or unfamiliar window. If you find one, select it and press Alt + F4, then test clicking again. In a similar case, closing the hidden window restored access.

    If that helps only temporarily, try a clean boot to find what creates the window. Search for msconfig, open System Configuration, then on Services, check Hide all Microsoft services before selecting Disable all. On Startup, open Task Manager and disable enabled startup apps. Restart and test. If the problem stops, re-enable items in groups until it returns.

    I wouldn’t reinstall Windows yet. A similar click-blocking issue was traced to a touchpad-related process, so identifying the interfering app or driver first is more useful than wiping the PC.

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