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
    2011-12-27T14:09:13+00:00

    Yes.  You can call 1-800-Microsoft or you can write to them officially at 

    One Microsoft Way

    Redmond, WA 98052-6399

    You can also find other contact methods at http://support.microsoft.com/contactus.  You can also open a support case for the issue.  However, for what my opinion is worth, I think the best we can hope for is a support article that says something like "this has been confirmed to be an issue."  However, since this issue cannot be reproduced on a fresh-installed system, they are also likely to blame it on 3rd party software/driver/something configuration.  Unfortunate, but again that's just my opinion.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-12-27T14:00:06+00:00

    Does anyone know where I can make this complaint formally to MS?

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-12-27T13:59:22+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.

    It is not OK for you to be assuming that all programs will follow rules. Does Microsoft Security Essentials assume that all code is going to follow the rules? There NEEDS to be an option that will prevent applications from stealing focus. I can't tell you how many software installations I have messed up because I was trying to write an e-mail while installing a program. 

    Saying "it is not supposed to be allowed" is a waste of all of our time, please do not post like this again.

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