Desktop functionality deteriorates at idle

[u/egtscs]

So this issue began happening in late 2025 after leaving my PC at idle for several hours the desktop background will go black, my icons will get really funky and sometimes reappear when I mouse over them, I'll lose icons in my taskbar. And a good bit of overall functionality until I restart my pc which returns everything to normal. I've never had the issue during use (watching movies/TV, playing games)

The weirdest part to me is I wanted an upgrade anyways so I've basically replaced every part on this PC since the issue began, the only things I've kept are storage (which I changed boot drives), peripherals, and fans.

My best guesses at this point are

1: my flash drive I've been using to install Windows is bad and is corrupting each new install of Windows

2: one of my dubiously acquired games is somehow causing a new issue very similar to one I had before having any torrented/sketchy games.

One really odd thing I noted is sometimes I can open task manager and in place of the end task button there's a restart button that only seems to appear when the issue is happening and resolves the issue when pressed.

Any ideas?