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
    2011-03-23T14:03:12+00:00

    I just tested this and it does not solve the problem.

    I have to agree with all the other posters, after this many years why can't Microsoft fix a simple issue? Why can we not be given a registry entry to globally enable and disable this feature? This is nothing short of ridiculous.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-03-23T12:44:39+00:00

    Has anyone tested this suggestion?

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-17T16:16:57+00:00

    Hello,

    I believe that your inquiry would be better suited for the MSDN Forums http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/categories.  However, I do have some information that may prove beneficial to obtaining a resolution for your inquiry.

    Open up the registry editor – go to Run, type regedit and click OK. Backing up the registry before a hack is always a good idea, so click File > Export, choose a location and click save. Then, proceed to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced

    Right click on the right-hand pane, make New> DWORD Value and name it EnableBalloonTips. Set the value to 0 to disable balloon tips, and set it back to 1 to enable balloon tips.

    This hack disables most balloo ntips. In order to eliminate all popups, some more work is required. In each of the following locations, change the values to 0 to disable balloon tips.

    Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

    1. Change the value of FolderContentsInfoTip to 0

    Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

    1. Change the value of ShowInfoTip to 0.

    Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\tips\Show

    1. Change the value of Show to 0

    ** You may have to create the "tips" key and DWORD value for the values listed above.

    In addition, below is a MSDN link that should address your issue.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms633539(VS.85).aspx

    I hope this information is beneficial.

    Thank you,

    Aaron G.

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