Invisible Windows

[GaryT]

Help :-)
The ability to read help files doesn't solve this one.

I'm looking for a Linux programmer or expert super-user to say "Yes, by 
all means, do the following".  Any help appreciated.

Using version 10.04 LTS.

Today I had an incident where the mouse suddenly went haywire. It 
travelled all around the edges of the screen, it closed windows, made 
new folders, and generally clicked in and on all sorts of places.
It has happened before and last time I solved it by replacing my KVM 
switch because it also happened on another machine.  That was with an 
earlier version Ubuntu and was a long time ago. With the new KVM switch 
there have been no issues, until now, and not yet on another machine.

When this happened in the past you had to delete all the unwanted new 
folders, restore all the deleted files and generally spend time cleaning 
up, after a reboot.

However, today when the mouse went mad all my 4-5 open windows suddenly 
disappeared. After a reboot everything was seemingly back to normal but 
at the time, when the mouse madness suddenly ended, they were all 
gone... literally invisible!  I thought they must have all been closed.

As I shut down the machine to reboot, one of the previously opened 
windows flashed on the screen, and at that point I realised they had not 
necessarily been closed, they had just been completely hidden.

NOW...

When I minimise a window, it disappears.  Any/every window that's 
minimised, disappears. Windows used to minimise to the little panel that 
runs horizontally along the edge of the screen, and you could simply 
click on the "docked" window name to display it. Now they disappear 
completely.

Since this began, I've discovered and enabled the "Window Selector" 
which enables one to select (by name) and show a window that is not 
displayed.

The Alt-Tab key combination also still works, and all the open but 
'invisible' windows are shown for selection (wish I had thought to check 
that one before rebooting today).

There is another little button in the corner of the screen. It appears 
not to have a title, but its tool tip message reads:  "Click here to 
hide all windows and show the desktop". When you click it certainly does 
hide all/any displayed windows, and a second click does not redisplay 
them, so at least it appears to be doing exactly what it's designed to 
do. I don't know whether a second click is supposed to redisplay them 
because I've never noticed or used it before.

Regardless of the status of that button, any window I minimise now 
simply disappears from view.  It hasn't been moved to another desktop or 
anything so simple, it literally disappears.

This may have nothing at all to do with the mouse going mad, and for the 
moment unless there is a known virus causing both, I'll treat them as 
separate problems, because there is no apparent connection. It could be 
just a coincidence they happened on the same day at the same time. It 
could be as simple as a wayward right mouse click bringing up a sub-menu 
and another selecting one of the options. But what?

Greatly appreciate any help.
GaryT