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
    2012-02-17T20:01:19+00:00

    I fogot to mention that this is not depending of how old is the operating system. It happens the same on brabd new installs and on old ones...

    As I said in another post, I don't deny that sometimes, but sometimes only, stealing focus may be necessary. But for most of the users, I think that the task blinking orange in the taskbar is enough, especially now, when having dual or even multiple monitors is more and more common to have.

    So again, I think that a setting somewhere in the control panel, to allow this or not, will be the best solution. I really hope that somebody from Microsoft will read this (somebody that also have some power of course).

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-17T19:46:32+00:00

    Yes, that is OK but Microsoft will tell you that Photoshop is not their software, so they have no control over it. Like any program can do whatever it wants, without any control from the operating system. Then why do we need operating systems??!!

    I did another test, using onlt Microsoft:

    1. Created a batch with the commands:

        PING 127.0.0.1 -n 10

        %SystemRoot%\system32\mstsc.exe

    1. Run it
    2. Open Notepad and start typing. When the remote connection window will open, it will still your focus from Notepad.

    So stilling focus is true and this time is ONLY Microsoft!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-01-25T02:43:10+00:00

    who marked this as answer?

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