Desktop background shifts to foreground

[dnl]

Yesterday I did a new install of Mint 18.1 with Cinnamon without any problems. Among other things, I set the desktop background to one of the pictures that is listed under Sarah. I added a few desktop shortcuts to programs. Launched a few programs. Everything looked and behaved normally.

Today when I booted up (first time after the day of the install -- I booted several times that day), the "background" picture appeared OK and the shortcuts appeared OK -- but when I launched a GUI program its window was very faint and looked as if it was behind the background picture. Every program I tried appeared this way.

I restarted cinnamon and everything seemed to be OK. I rebooted and everything seemed to be OK.

I don't have a lot of experience (been using Mint for only about half a year) but I have not seen this before. I am wondering -- is this something that just happens sometimes or is it a symptom of some installation problem that I should fix?

Edited to correct my description of when the problem occurred.

[Cosmo.]

No, those things do not happen just sometimes, they happen out of a reason.

The first question, which came into my mind by reading the starting post: Has the system been updated? Which levels in the update manager?
At least I read, that the system had not been rebooted after the updates. So it might be a problem with one of the updates.

Did you install any other software (="among other things"). Also this can give a problem.

[JosephM]

The "Show desktop" applet that is on the panel can produce this type of effect when hovered over. Can't remember if it had that behavior in Mint 18.1. You could try it to see if that gives the effect you are talking about. You can disable it by right clicking the applet and choosing "Configure".

[dnl]

Cosmo and JospehM -- thank you for the replies.

@Cosmo
I did a poor job of describing when I booted and saw the problem. That boot was the first one on a day following the day I completed the install. On the install date I booted several times, installing updates for levels 1-3, and I installed several applications like CrossOver (I imported two WinXP bottles with associated desktop icons), audacity, backintime, geany, samba, synapse, .... and a bunch more. I did not see any problem on the install day.

On the first boot the following day is when I saw the problem. I used another computer to search for help and started posting to this forum when the thought occurred I should try restarting Cinnamon. That fixed it and there has been no problem since.

@JospehM
Yes, the effect I get when hovering over the "show desktop" icon is exactly the effect I saw. I used the mouse to launch several programs so I know it was not hovering over that icon.

Perhaps the desktop somehow got stuck in this state? I cannot reproduce the problem so I will have to wait for another occurrence before trying anything else.

[patrisVII]

Ive seen it as well since i upgraded to 18.2. My limited testing seems to indicate it's associated with themes.

I typically use Paper or Numix themes for window borders and controls. I switched to the installed theme Mint Y a few days ago and have not seen it since.

[raban]

The attached Screenshot explains it. Unfortunately also the shutdown dialogue is very difficult to see when it happens but fully functional.

[buteman]

I have the same problem but you just need to logout and then back in. Down on the right of the screen on the taskbar you have the icon of a person. Click on it and then on log out. Then a new box will appear on the screen faintly but you should be able to click on the bottom right button and then you can log back in.
hth