Sleeping Win 10 Runs Programs From Taskbar

Basically, after exiting all programs (the PC is mainly used for Ableton, music software) and putting the pc to sleep, the next morning, it's wide awake with all six programs from the taskbar running - that's Total Commander, Open Office, Evernote, Chrome, Ableton, and File Explorer. The programs all seem to be waiting for a user response, of they need one when started.

This began happening around the time I got the email about having been hacked (send us 1000 bucks worth of bitcoin or else blah blah blah) - coulda been before, maybe a bit later, not sure - it's been going on for a while.

I ran through the whole anti-malware procedure - nothing bad was found: buncha adware/cookie crap, orphan bits and pieces, dead registry entries, that kind of stuff. Somewhere along the line, Driver Support got broken - I'd installed it because of USB problems with new phones (Samsung 9+) and MIDI gear - dunno if it's necessary still, but MB pops up a PUP message quite often about its website . being blocked.

The pc is a somewhat antique Toshiba Satellite P875-S7102 with an HP23 touchscreen (HDMI to screen, USB to touch) set as extended display, and Logitech wireless kbd/mouse, Sandisk USB drive, a 7-port HooToo USB hub with seven active devices (Mackie and Alesis mixers, Akai APC40 MIDI controller, Behringer FCB1010 MIDI controller, Korg NanoPad / Drum, Novation Launchkey 49 and 25 MIDI keyboards). It's running Win 10 Home V. 1803, Build 17134.548 from 5/18/2018.

I don't know whether to think the bizarre behavior is from the alleged hacking (I also replaced the wifi router with a Linksys N600, which seems to be working fine and has gotten rid of almost all of the random loss of connections, so thinking no issue there.

 

Are the six programs set to run at startup?

 

Nope.

 

Near as I can tell, the touchscreen on the HP 23 monitor is the culprit. I noticed there was a bit of "noise" - wavy crap - occasionally at the bottom.

I also have a two-year-old Thinkpad Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1 which has a problem with its touchscreen, such that phantom touches jump up all over the screen. Lenovo apparently has a hardware problem with that particular design, because the few people with what sounds like the same thing and who happen to be still in warranty sent theirs off and got it back fixed with a new screen (and the computer changed its model number...). In my case, the warranty is expired and they didn't want to talk about it at all, just send it in and expect to pay about $500. It works fine as long as the screen isn't open, so it's now a really flat desktop in my library with a 40" screen, and perfectly good at that job. Just don't open the top, or finger touches start appearing magically all over the screen and running programs get closed or resized, new programs get started... bad juju.

Sorry for the digression, but... disconnecting the HP's touchscreen USB from the Toshiba, and presto! No more seeing the taskbar programs all running.

Weird, but there it is.