I know there was a previous topic regarding this from several years ago and didn't want to revive something from three years ago.  But I had no problem with this until yesterday.  I at first turned on my PC and played for a few hours, no problems even played some CDLC I downloaded a while back.  I then stopped, downloaded some new CDLC and put it in its respective folder.  Then later in the day went to play and the game minimizes itself shortly after startup.  I started Rocksmith back up then begin playing a song and it will play for a minute or two then minimize,  It constantly does this.  I have uninstalled and reinstalled.  It seems to run fine until I add the CDLC, but I only added what I had previously when I didn't have this problem.  I have tried to repair the files through Steam, and same results.  Any body have this problem before or any suggestions?  None of my other games have this problem.  As it appears, there is nothing running in the background.  I do use AVG free edition and did not trouble shoot that.  But like I said, all has been well until yesterday.            

It seems that windows notification (associated with different software like an AV or skype etc...) can cause RS to minimize.

Thanks for the quick reply.  I am going to try and trouble shoot more this evening.  It is just throwing me off because I never had the problem, then all of a sudden it just started.  I have not installed any new software either and it is a fairly new build.  It actually doesn't have much on it other than a few games, steam, AVG free and some other programs related to Flight Sim X Steam.    

I am also suddenly and for the first time having this issue. Has to be a Microsoft update that caused it, because I have changed NOTHING, and MS sneaks in at night an messes with my computer. 

Followed the advice about turning off notifications.

Found out how here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-turn-off-notifications-in-windows-10/

 

Also, when I clicked on the notifications icon in the lower right, as the directions say, there was a notification in there that said something about turning off notifications when i'm gaming. I did that in addition to following the directions in the link and I was able to play w/o the crash to the desktop. Therefore, not sure which thing that I did was the one that helped.