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Process called "MSCTFIME UI" stealing focus

I was playing video games on my computer when suddenly it paused for no reason. Thinking this was a random one-time occurance, I kept playing. However, the game paused again, and again after that. I thought that the game was losing focus, so I went to settings and turned off "pause game on focus loss" and that cured the issue. However, if I try to play a game fullscreened in windowed borderless, it will minimize randomly. I downloaded a focus logger from https://github.com/JocysCom/FocusLogger, and found out that a process, located in the folder C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.exe, called "explorer," with a window name of "MSCTFIME UI" was stealing focus and causing my games to lose focus. Is there a way I could solve this? I cannot even find a window called "MSCTFIME UI," also.

Dear Felix Bai

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I learned that when you play the game in full screen, it is randomly minimized. You go through a third-party program and think that the problem is due to the MSCTFIME UI. MSCTFIME UI seems to be related to input methods, a process of input methods.

You can try running the game without third-party interference to see if there is still an issue with automatic exit minimization.I recommend trying a clean boot which starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. It can be used to determine whether a background service or program is interfering or causing a problem. 

These steps of "clean boot" might look complicated at first glance. However, to avoid any trouble for you, please follow them in order and step-by-step. 

If the problem does not appear after a clean start, the error report is related to third party software. (If you have third party protection software installed, such as 360, McAfee etc., please uninstall the third party protection software before a clean start)You can observe what app is opened and the game appears minimized.

If the problem is still not solved by the above steps, you can share the recent progress with me in the reply. I will work with you to try other possible solutions to resolve the problem.

 

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we look forward to your reply.

 

 

Best Regards,

 

LucyW-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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I had the same problem with the same symptoms. Turned out it was Razor Central having a profile mismatch - it needed me to confirm whether it wanted me to keep my local profile or online profile. I think it was trying to pop up a window, but failing, so it never actually popped into the forefront.

If you have Razor Synapse installed, worth checking that.

If that's not it, then I recommend this app to help figure it out. This was the only focus logger I found that actually caught the culprit.

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Last updated April 24, 2025 Views 4,981 Applies to: