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
    2011-07-03T14:10:28+00:00

    ...if I could have made Microsoft Office play nicer in Linux, I would have jumped ship several years ago. 

    But I didn't, like with MAC in years past compatibility is the kicker.

    And yes, if you haven't experienced this issue download Quickbooks, play with it for a while, it will happen.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-07-06T09:36:13+00:00

    Hey I just did... and unfortunately with a twist of irony, it worked.  I'm trying to figure out the difference between setups, but when I plugged in the USB drive, it appeared under Notepad (but not in the back of the stack, it showed above my browser, for example).

    Screenshot:  http://skeene.net/answers/NeedyAppFlash.png

    It appeared, but did not take focus away from Notepad, and it flashed the Explorer Taskbar button (the AutoPlay window flashed as well).

    I'm not sure what the difference is, but there must be something different in our setups.

    I have Windows 7 installed both at work and at home. There is no common software or hardware between the 2 versions, yet they both suffer from the same problem.

    The only common factor between them is that they are both 64-bit Windows 7.

    Do you have a 64-bit Windows 7 that you can try it out on?

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-07-06T12:55:31+00:00

    FWIW, I am using Windows 7 x64.

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