I'm trying to set up BOINC v7.6.22 and SETI@Home on my Windows 10 machine.

I have everything set up and working, but, each time BOINC begins performing a computation task, my start menu and task bar stop working. The start menu is unresponsive when I click the windows button on the screen or press the windows button on my keyboard. The search box is non functional. I can still click on the task bar to switch between open programs, but right clicking on the softwares' boxes does not bring up the usual context menus. Similarly, the icons in the notification tray, such as the volume and wifi icons, are complete unresponsive.

The problem persists even after I pause computation and shut down BOINC. It also persists when I use Task Manager to restart the explorer service. The only solution is to log off and back on my windows account, or to restart the computer.

The problem is repeatable and happens each time BOINC begins computing. I have set the software to start in suspended mode. Everything is fine when my machine first boots and when BOINC starts. It is only when I set computation to begin, when the issue starts.

Cause and solution?

What is the W10 build number (eg 10240, 10586, 14372). One of the things I did was excluding the BOINC data dir from search indexing. Also excluded it from Windows defender scanning. Getting now 99+ percent efficiency for BOINC with fairly good responsiveness from the Windows GUI.

Are you GPU computing while system is in use?

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

My Windows build number is 10586.494.

Yes I have GPU computing enabled while the system is in use. I am using both a Nvidia GTX 980, as well as the integrated graphics of my CPU.

Upon further testing this problem appears to be related to the integrated graphics being enabled. When I disable the integrated graphics via the BIOS and run BIONC off only the dedicated graphics card, instead of both at the same time, the problem does not appear.

Another observation:

Even when only using the dedicated GPU, the start menu would become unresponsive during computing. If I stop computing and close BOINC, and then wait approximately 15 seconds, the start menu would quickly flash, and then begin working again.

When I was using both the integrated and dedicated graphics at the same time, the start menu never recovered, no matter how long I waited.

The default is to only GPGPU compute when system is idle. You can set this behavior for CPU an GPU separately.

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

I've selected "suspend GPU computing when computer is in use", and this problem appears to be resolved. Thanks!