Applications stealing focus - reg key no longer fixes

Anonymous
2010-04-08T18:42:59+00:00

I want to prevent any applications from stealing focus in windows 7 (and Vista).  Tweakui used to modify the below Registry key to 0.  Then there was a key that affected the number of flashes a "want to steal focus" window would make in the taskbar.

ForegroundLockTimeout

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

This reg key is apparently no longer working.  Focus stealing is a major problem, from canceling/oking window that pop-up, to getting virus's from IE windows.  Applications are still written to do this, including MS Office 2007.  If you are typing an email something can pop up and get the next key stroke.  I need to fix this.  Any ideas, or has Windows completely removed a needed feature.

tags: steal focus apps active regedit

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Apps

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Anonymous
2011-10-23T11:13:03+00:00

I solved the problem in this way:

I noticed that just before the focus was "stolen", the PC got "busy" for a second (beside the mouse appeared the small circle indicating the processor is working hard on sth).

So I started the Task Manager and gave a close look at the processes. I noticed that one process took over a relevat percentage of CPU usage exactly an instant before the focus was stolen from the task manager window.

Since it was a process that I don't need to be active all the time (sth about Vodafone Mobile connection, which I rarely use) I just stopped the process and then didn't allow the process to be started every time I turn on the PC. I did this last step using Piriform's free software  "CCleaner", but I'm sure you can find different tools for this...

This was enough to fix it ...

Hope this helped!

Bye!

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-01-14T01:01:46+00:00

    That cannot be true, as XP suppressed this behaviour just fine.

    Besides, reg fixes are enacted by the user--the person who's paid to use both pieces of software and should be allowed to use it the way they want!--not set as default by Microsoft. A "needy state" can be displayed just as well with a few flashes on the taskbar, which may well be annoying, but doesn't cause problems as focus-switching does.

    I find this problem happens mostly with installers. Having reinstalled the OS on my PC this week, going through restoring all my programs while chatting in Trillian, I've had massive problems with hitting enter just as the installer popped up a notification, and having no idea what I just agreed to. Cue several search toolbars I never wanted vying for attention on my browser ...

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-01-04T03:47:04+00:00

    This is definitely a major usability issue for Windows in general. If you have a brand new 4 or 6 core system with 12+GB of ram and try to do multiple things at a time, Windows throws up focus stealing dialogs like reboot prompts for updates - you just can't truely multitask without getting interrupted. It would be nice to have the choice to allow the OS to ignore focus stealing requests.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-04-09T03:57:05+00:00

    In Windows 7, applications are not supposed to be allowed to steal focus.  The registry setting was removed because it is always assumed to be "0" in the code.  The Windows 7 Engineering Team blogged about this in their "needy applications" blog.

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