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
    2012-05-04T03:34:15+00:00

    Thanks for the quick answer.

    In this case, I found a way to replicate the issue.

    Get a big .rar file (something that will take some minutes to extract);

    Extract it (I'm using winrar);

    Open another program (notepad, messenger, word, etc);

    When the extraction is completed the program will lose focus (I replicated it while I was writing this post).

    What bothers me the most is when a message pop up is displayed and ask you something. If I’m typing something I will answer the question without reading it.

    Thanks again!

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-05-04T02:31:59+00:00

    Anything you launch from the command shell will take focus, that's how it is intended.  You don't even have to type the ping part.  Just type "notepad" and notepad launches -- the shell interpreter doesn't know about the preceding command, it parses them in order.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-05-04T02:23:16+00:00

    Hi Shawn

    I'm also mad with this issue.

    You told us that you need a way to reproduce it.

    Have you tried this one:

    Start -> execute -> cmd.exe -> OK

    type:

    ping -n 60 127.0.0.1 && notepad

    Now, in exactely 60 seconds notepad will steal the focus, you cannot prevent this behaviour.

    Please let me know if this is ok.

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