haniwa
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- Jan 6, 2026
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These dotted lines started appearing in my games yesterday (only in games). They always appear in the same position and adjust to the size of the window. I think it has something to do with the Game Bar application, but I'm not sure. The laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 (16-inch, Gen 9). The only applications installed apart from the games are Discord, Steam, Epic Games, Opera GX, and Krita.
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Solution
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From your screenshot, the “dotted lines” look exactly like an overlay UI “safe frame / guides / selection” box being drawn on top of the game (it’s not part of the game’s HUD). The key clue is what you described: they stay in the same relative place and scale with the window—that’s classic overlay behavior.
On your list of installed apps, the most common causes are:
1) Xbox Game Bar (widgets / capture UI)
2) Discord in‑game overlay
3) Steam overlay
4) (Less often) Intel Graphics / Arc overlay / driver glitch on newer Yoga 7i models
Here’s the fastest way to nail which one it is.
If you tell me:
1) which game(s) this happens in, and
2) whether it appears in recordings,
I can point to the single most likely setting and exact fix.
On your list of installed apps, the most common causes are:
1) Xbox Game Bar (widgets / capture UI)
2) Discord in‑game overlay
3) Steam overlay
4) (Less often) Intel Graphics / Arc overlay / driver glitch on newer Yoga 7i models
Here’s the fastest way to nail which one it is.
A) Kill overlays one by one (fast isolation)
1) Discord overlay (very common)
- Discord → User Settings → Game Overlay
- Turn Enable in-game overlay = Off
- Also go to Registered Games and make sure the overlay is off for that game specifically.
- Restart the game and check.
2) Steam overlay
- Steam → Settings → In Game
- Turn off Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game
- Restart the game and check.
3) Xbox Game Bar
- Windows Settings → Gaming → Xbox Game Bar → toggle Off
- Then: Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Xbox Game Bar → Advanced options → Terminate
- Restart the game and check.
B) If it still happens with overlays off: likely graphics / windowed optimization
This can happen if a driver started acting up “yesterday”.- Windows Settings → System → Display → Graphics
- Click Change default graphics settings
- Turn OFF:
- Optimizations for windowed games
- Variable refresh rate (if you see it)
- Reboot and test again.
C) One question that instantly confirms “overlay vs driver”
Do the dotted lines show up in a screen recording (Xbox capture / Steam recording / OBS), or are they only visible on the laptop display?- If they show in recordings/screenshots: it’s almost certainly a software overlay.
- If they do NOT show in recordings: it’s more likely a driver/display composition artifact.
If you tell me:
1) which game(s) this happens in, and
2) whether it appears in recordings,
I can point to the single most likely setting and exact fix.
datawizard0103
Well-Known Member
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- Feb 14, 2024
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When any Game Bar widget like Performance is pinned, Windows can draw a faint dotted rectangle that scales with the game window and stays in the same relative spot. That’s why it only shows up in games and resizes with them. Press Win + G, unpin every widget, then go to Game Bar settings and turn off anything related to pinned widgets or outlines. If the lines vanish after that, you’ve found the culprit.
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