Vista - Computer keeps deselecting or closing boxes (Highly annoying)?

I've got a persistent problem with my computer where every few seconds the window I am currently on appears to deselect and reselect so the bar at the top keeps flashing. I could live with this but it also seems to happen when I right-click on anything and closes the box so it's almost impossible to close items on the toolbar or open any programs from quick launch.

If I try to select a group of items it'll randomly stop when I'm trying to highlight them all, even if I manage to highlight them all it'll then deselect them. Most annoying is if I'm typing into the search box for google it'll select all the text in the box making me replace it. Trying to rename any files is impossible as it keeps thinking I've clicked off and you have to be quick doing one letter at a time.

It appears something is causing windows to switch to something else and back quickly. What it is I ain't sure. Anyone else had this problem and managed to solve it?

I'm running Vista-64bit.

Cheers!

Looking at your post the first thing I would check is your mouse.
Are any of the buttons sticking?

Thanks for the suggestion but it is not the mouse. Its a new PC so tried my old mouse on it and still had the same problem. Strangely it has stopped doing it the now, if it will keep doing it after I restart I don't know - not wanting to risk it until I get the report I'm working on done. Definitely suggests that there is something running in the background. I thought at first it may be my anti-virsus as I've learned over the years thats a common route of most problems but after temporarily disabling it there was no difference and its back on now without the problem returning.

Sadly now that I've restarted my computer it is back again!

Look at your mouse properties.
Look at auto select, I am not at home at the moment but I seem to remember something about a mouse auto selecting a window.
If changing the mouse solved the problem then there is something simple to find.
Has the mouse got its own software?
What is the model of your computer? What is the model of your mouse?

No sorry I must not have made myself clear in the last post. Changing the mouse didn't fix the problem. I tried another mouse and the problem was still there, changed back to the original mouse and half an hour later the problem stopped. Having turned on my computer today though and the problem is back. Even without the mouse plugged in the window I have selected flashes as if its been deslected and reslected i.e. as if it is quickly changing to another program and back.

My mouse is a logitech not sure of the exact model but it definitely didn't come with any software. Computer is custom built - Intel Core2 Quad CPU @ 3ghz, 8gd ram.

brydie:

You haven't said,so I'll ask. Have you tried doing a System Restore to
a point before the problem began? If not,restoring from Safe Mode usually
has a better chance of success.

Ardneh

Just checked what restore points I have and all of them are within the last week. Only had the PC for three-four weeks and I think the problem started the 4th or 5th day. It's annoying enough that I'm tempted to format everything and reinstall windows though the time to reinstall everything and set it up is offputting. Was hoping someone may have experienced a similar problem and found a way to fix it.

Before you do a reinstall,just as an experiment create a new User Account and
see if the problem persists there. If not you can transfer your personal files to
the new account and ignore or delete the old one.

Ardneh

Aye it does it in the two users accounts I have and any new ones.

Just noticed there if I say have firefox open and not fullscreen and I click anywhere on the desktop so on the taskbar none of the programs are selected after a second it'll go back to saying firefox is selected, even if my mouse if still hovering over the desk top and even if I'm still holding down the mouse button. It has to be some stupid windows thing or background program running amock.