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
    2011-09-23T21:03:59+00:00

    Yes there is confusion, steeling focus may well be prevented in Win7 but there are plenty of legitimate ways that windows can 'CLAIM' focus, all are repeatable.

    For example, I will be writing an email and know that when I've finished I want to use Adobe InDesign. So I click the taskbar icon for InDesign and it starts loading. This is going to take a while so I go back to the email and keep typing. At some point InDesign finishes loading and steals focus from the email I'm writing.

    You can swap pretty much any program into this scenario.

    I know that for many users this feature is what they want. But for me it is annoying. The worst case is loading a program that has shortcut keys that do serious things without an undo. I'll be happily typing away and the new program steals focus, I hit a critical shortcut key without realising it. A pop-up appears and asks if I'm sure I want to do this un-reversable action. Before I have realised what is happening I have hit the spacebar, which of course actions the highlight 'YES' I'm sure I want to do this stupid thing and some important document gets trashed and I need to spend ages fixing it.

    Admittedly it is rare that this serious scenario occurs, but ALL these focus changing events are frustrating. I DO NOT WANT TO WASTE TIME WAITING FOR THINGS TO LOAD just because if I try and do something else it might mess things up when the focus changes without my permission. I want to multi-task, what is the point of having a PC that can have multiple applications running if you have to do tasks one at a time? When I am ready to attend to the event that an application has flagged I will attend to it, in the mean time I want to finish the other task that has MY FOCUS.

    I am happy for the application to flash in the task bar to inform me that it wants attention, I do not want it interupting me in the middle of a rant on a forum!

    I hope this clears up the misunderstanding some people here have, that we are moaning about something that doesn't happen or is rare.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-09-13T15:30:26+00:00

    If I have Aero disabled windows live messenger will steal focus ALL the time. With AERO on it doesn't steal focus.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-08-17T08:55:53+00:00

    This happens to me, every day when I'm using Visual Studio 2010, which ironically is a Microsoft product.

    Set a breakpoint, debug your app, switch to another app, start typing. When your breakpoint hits, VS steals the focus and the text you were typing gets entered into VS.  This is a major productivity killer.  This is on Win 7, 64 bit. According to the internet, this happens for all versions of windows.

    Windows update also steals my focus.  Come to think of it, the things that steal my focus the most are MS programs and Windows itself.

    Pretty much every version of VS since 2003 does this...and you are correct. It is a PITA.

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