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
    2011-02-05T01:08:29+00:00

    This is simply not correct.  I'm running Windows 7 Professional and both IE and Windows Live Mail regularly steal focus from each other while I'm typing.  It seems they've disabled the regkey so that it has no effect, but they didn't atually fix the problem. 

    As an example, if I'm typing an email in WLM and there's a page loading in IE in the background (or even auto-refreshing as some websites do) it will steal focus once it's completed loading. 

    In fact, another example happened just as I was typing this!  I was running FAVC (the video convertor software) in the background as I was typing this in IE, and FAVC just took focus while I was mid-sentence.

    The most infuriating part is when a dialog box steal focus and you select a button without even realising what the box said. 

    Fifteen years since Win 95 and we still have this.  Fix it FFS!!!

    P.S. The old regkey fix never worked consistently in XP either.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-05T16:52:50+00:00

    I have much the same problem, only when focus is stolen the only way to regain it is by going into task manager.  I don't  have to do anything once I get there, I just have to go there, then exit TM and everything works for another 15-20 minutes until it happens again.... over and over all day long... day in and day out ... for about a month now. I run win 7 64.  Can't replicate anything to associate the behavior with--it just happens.  I've run everything from scanners to hardware diags to try to determine why it happens with no results.  I've researched the problem for hours on the internet only to reach dead ends.   I've tried disabling add-ins, modifying MSconfig, registry, done driver updates, software updates, etc.  My pc worked fine for about a year before this started happening in Decemeber 2010.  I've resigned myself to the fact that it is a problem residing so deep in the OS's code that it may be untreatable. 

    Very discouraging.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-02-05T18:10:42+00:00

    If it was fine for about a year, I'd say that there was some change that caused it to start happening (makes sense, right?)

    So we need to determine what, exactly, is causing the issue.  Is it a system update, possibly replacing a DLL with a buggy version, an app install, a combination, or other factors.

    If we can find the pattern of what causes the behavior, we'll be a lot closer to a resolution.

    If this solves your issue, click the 'Propose as Answer' link below, and vote as helpful by clicking the green triangle to the lelft. Thanks!

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