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
    2011-07-22T16:19:22+00:00

    Sounds similar to my case.

    I do not use a touch screen.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-07-22T16:37:36+00:00

    I have disabled the following Programs from starting by use of Startup Delayer.

    Since this time the problem did not occur any more.

    AdobeARM

    AdobeGammaLoader

    AdobeReaderSpeedLauncher

    BCSSync

    Gladinet Cloud Desktop

    Google Update

    ISDNWatch

    LexwareInfoService

    NapsterShell

    nwiz

    OneNote 2010 Bildschirmausschnitt- und Startprogramm

    Quick Time Task

    SunJavaUpdateSched

    TrayServer

    Window Mobile Device Center

    WLSync

    I did not check out what program is really the reason.

    The only guess I have is that Gladinet and WindowsLiveSync are services that were installed only recently and could relate to the time where the problem began.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-07-28T22:08:59+00:00

    Is there any chance this problem can be fixed via DLL redirection to intercept the offending API calls and convert them into more harmless behavior such as what this link is about?

    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2987/bringing-window-to-the-front-in-c-using-win32-api

    Re:  The bit where you SetWindowPos with the SWP_NOACTIVATE flag.

    I'm seeing a lot of angry Visual Studio users in here.  I was never that advanced and am way out of practice but how hard would it be to write a small app to do this with maybe a little configuration screen to set up your desired behavior (beeps, taskbar flashes, whatever)?

    Anybody out there willing to throw something like that together?  Or know why it's not possible?

    Also what about Shell replacements?

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