Windows 10 Navigating Between Apps / Windows Behavior Changed - Due to Updates?

[consultant1027]

About 2-3 months ago all of the sudden my Windows 10 started behaving very differently and I'm not sure if it is something that Microsoft forced on me after an update or I inadvertently changed something. Basically the way you switch between applications changed in that I can no longer just click on an application in the bar below to swtich back to that application (in the case I have multiple windows open for that app it just brings up the last windows I used for that app.) Now I have to click on it and then click on the mini screen preview window that pops up, even if I only have one Window open.
The other weird thing is that many times when I send an email from Outlook, instead of going back to the main Outlook screen it just shows my desktop!
In addition, there's a big delay switching between applications. Instead of the application instantly showing there's like a 0.5-1 second delay and the window opens open slowly instead of instantly. (I know there's some settings to disable some of these "fancy" UI effects but I'm sure I didn't change them from what they were before this started happening!)
Does anyone know (a) if a recent update in the past 3 months or so could have resulted in this changed UI behavior (if so - I'm very frustrated Microsoft would take it on themselves to do that) and (b) a reminder of where I can go to make everything simple and fast again. (I run an i7 gaming laptop so I have a very fast machine.)
Thanks

 

[Neemobeer]

Well Microsoft does push out feature add/change/removes, but I doubt that's what's happening as it would likely happen to most or all other people with those updates.

Other things it could be

• Hardware problem (such as a failing disk, or overheating CPU) could degrade your performance
• Malware can cause all sorts of issues
• Corruption in your OS
• A buggy driver update

For the office issue I would start by repairing Office

For the performance issue
Test your hard drive (google will give you a lot of free tools) such as speedfan, spinrite, seagate seatools
Run multiple malware scanners preferably in safe mode such as tssdkiller, spybot and malwarebytes

Run some built in tools to check for file system inconsistencies and OS corruption
chkdsk /R C:

and

sfc /scannow