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
    2012-02-22T11:25:57+00:00

    "can't get it to happen" means what? Does your taskbar flash if some window wants focus? Please be more specific. Have you tried that checkdisk or display some webpage with javascript alert() as I wrote? Have you tried that batch file LiviuZ posted? Please address these specific examples and tell exactly what happens. Thank you

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-22T19:46:10+00:00

    Exactly.  I've tried them all but the Javascript.  In every case, on both my Dell Latitude and my Asus laptops (running Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate, respectively) it simply causes the needy program to flash.  On the Asus I've done this after a fresh install (recently after moving back to 7 from the Windows 8 preview), but the Dell is locked under domain policy so I can't try a clean state with it.

    About the javascript... I gave it a try as I was writing this and when the timer threw the alert() call, the IE button on the Taskbar started flashing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-24T11:34:18+00:00

    Allright then, it does exactly the opposite for me on Win7 x64: taskbar never flashes and windows always get into focus in all these occasions.

    So do you think it is possible to finally get some developer make a look at it? I am sure it will be just some silly registry value which nobody "normal" knows about and from some reason some people have it true while others false... This debate took 2 years already and I find it pretty ridiculous. Maybe Microsoft wants us to waste time by silly forum posting about this random "feature" or I don't know :-]

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