Well i disabled all extensions and that fixed it, I have given it a week to make sure the problem doesn't re-occur before responding to the thread here.

So it must have been one of my extensions, I haven't re-enabled them as I have found I don't really miss them at this point

Thanks
Guys

In the beta version

Version: 28.0.1750.15 - Opera is up to date
Update stream: beta
System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (WoW64)
I have

adblock
Google calender
Rss Detector
Smart RSS
Facebook for speeddial

In the stable version

Version: 27.0.1689.66 - Opera is up to date
Update stream: Stable
System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (WoW64)

Google calender

I have tested this in both stable and beta, and I am having the same issue, the screen will suddenly flash like the browser window is being redrawn and I will temporarily lose focus on what I am typing, and then it all goes back to normal, It started months ago.

It doesn't appear to happen in Google chrome or Internet Explorer.

What should I be looking at

I am running windows 8.1

Any help would be appreciated as it is really irritating

Thanks Nigel T

Did you ever work this out, as I am in the same situation wanting to transfer all my saved passwords etc from the beta to the stable version

Ok, using the info in this post
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1765432&t=1385768814&page=1#comment14809222

helped a lot, the only issue was that i don't have a /profile folder so i had to locate my roaming folder

So for me the below command worked

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera Next\launcher.exe" --presto-small-prefs-dir="C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera64"

I can't work out how to get the profile importer to start, and the import bookmarks thingie is greyed out

I have read that if opera 12s paths aren't standard opera 18 can't find it, but from what i can tell below the paths seem right-ish

Opera 12 paths
Paths
Preferences
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera64\operaprefs.ini
Saved session
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera64\sessions\autopera.win
Bookmarks
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera64\bookmarks.adr
Opera directory
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera64
Cache
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera64\cache
Help documents
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera64\opcache
Mail directory
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera64\mail
Plug-in path
E:\Opera64\program\plugins
User CSS directory
C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera64\styles\user

Opera 18 Paths

Install: C:\Program Files (x86)\Opera Next
Profile: C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Next
Cache: C:\Users\noodlesoup\AppData\Local\Opera Software\Opera Next

Any help appreciated

Ok, i can find guides on how to Import if i am installing opera 18 in place of Opera 12, but as I want both Operas on my system while I evaluate Opera 18, how do i pull the settings across?

And yes i understand Opera 18 is different etc and i lose Mail, RSS and Dragonfly (3 of my main reasons for sticking with 12), but well for general use it seems fine and add-ons for RSS sounds OK

Cheers