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
    2011-11-03T02:33:09+00:00

    I know office 2010 programs have a 'cancel' button on their loading screen.  I'm sure most programmers are probably just not interested in handling what to do if a user cancels at any particular point.  Single-threaded programs from all those years ago were only working on one task when they were interrupted. Today it could be doing dozens of things all over the system.  Unless I thought it'd be a big concern, I know I wouldn't be willing to code that into my programs.  Not that I develop anything significant enough to need it lol.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-03T02:28:14+00:00

    Thanks for creating this form. I just filled it out.

    Stealing focus really is a constant annoyance. Today it escalated to the point where I read all 11 pages in this thread hoping and praying for a fix. I happened to be restarting Photoshop several times in a row just now and Photoshop stole the focus every time, each time interrupting what I was doing.

    And while I'm venting my Windows frustrations, here's one that has been bugging me ever since Windows 3.0. Why, oh why, can't I interrupt a program while it's launching; i.e., cancel the launch? In 1976 I could immediately interrupt any process running under RSTS/E on a PDP-11. This was running from a terminal connected over a 2400-baud RS-232 connection. All I had to do was simply press Ctrl+C. With all the memory and processor power now available (and a keyboard connected directly to the motherboard) maybe Microsoft could find a way to reproduce this useful feature of 35 years ago.

    Pretty please with sugar on top?

    David Salahi

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-10-28T14:37:08+00:00

    I created this form to try to gather some information and identify a trend.  Please contribute, even if you don't have this issue (although obviously anyone participating in this discussion will I'm sure).

    If you can think of any pertinent info that I'm not capturing here, let me know :)

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dFVUeEVCZFl3XzQ0Z3BqbFNCaFV1WXc6MQ#gid=0

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