Solved Grey square left hand corner desktop

I have a small grey square in the upper left corner of my desktop. It appears it may be transparent, and it looks like it lies under the desktop icons.

I have searched the web and I cannot find a solution to why all of a sudden it is there. No new programs recently and even restored the computer back to a previous point.

A screenshot would be nice. I've seen an item appear at upper left corner on a few computers and it was showing an image of the type of video connection for the monitor, VGA or DVI. It usually didn't stay there long. Some computers will also show the Volume slider there, again not for long.

A customer had an invisible area at the top of his screen. When I started looking into it, I found there was a program running that was like an ad but invisible. I removed the program, and it went away. It could be the same thing, just taking up a corner of the screen instead of across the entire top of the screen.

Anything happen if you right click on it? I agree a screen shot would help

A Guy

Thanks for the quick replies.
I took a few screenshots and this is now even weirder.
I have dual monitors and when I take a screenshot with both monitors connected, the grey box is not in the upper left corner of my main monitor. It now shows up as a larger box on the secondary monitor. When I disconnect the 2nd monitor, there still is no grey box showing in the screenshot but is on my monitor.
2 screenshots and a photo from my camera.
1st one photo. 2nd one both monitors connected. 3rd is 2nd monitor disconnected

Quick update, it appears to be transparent and is on top of icons and any open window. The 2nd screenie shows the big dark box...it only shows up in the screenshot, it is not visible on desktop.

The mention of dual monitors throws a monkey wrench in the mix, would have been good to be shown in My Computer also with the rest of the data..

Since the issue does not occur with only one monitor connected there's at least 2 possibilities, one is the second monitor is somehow feeding back into the main [touch screen??] or the graphics adapter has a problem.

Computer specs uploaded and no touch screen

What happens if you change the two monitors position? Does the box follow or stay in the same place on the other monitor?

What about if you mirror the monitors, does it appear on one or both (assuming you are extended now)

A Guy

I tried all of those ideas already but thanks for suggesting them. I am going to get a couple of new cables from my son in law and see if it may be cable related. I shall also check to see if it is the output. One is on HDMI, the other DVI. If not, my money says monitor.

I just put on a game and the block is visible in the game.

Download Autoruns for Windows - Windows Sysinternals This will tell you the apps that are loading with Windows. If you see something suspicious you can uninstall it or scan for Malware.

Dusty Roads said:

I tried all of those ideas already but thanks for suggesting them...

Click to expand...

And your findings?

A Guy

Problem solved. My grandson uses this computer every once and a while and he tried to use something called picture boost on the AOC monitor. I got rid of that and the box went away. Almost like a broken picture within picture on tv.