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
    2011-10-28T05:34:22+00:00

    Shawn,

    Thanks for chiming in from the perspective of a moderator and Microsoft MVP. Aside from the Outlook reminder example stated, and ignoring the restart prompts for Windows updates, my users in the OpenText FirstClass client get reminders that steal focus when such a reminder is scheduled to occur. The focus stealing action will result in one of three possible outcomes:

    1. The user is not present. The reminder steals focus and is visible before the user inputs keystrokes. Acceptable "feature" in FirstClass.
    2. The user is present and not actively typing. The reminder steals focus and is visibly in the way of a prior engagement. Written off as an annoyance but not a deal breaker.
    3. The user is actively entering keystrokes when the reminder steals focus. Herein lies the rub. As much as the user desires to be reminded, s/he does not necessarily connect the dots between a reminder stealing focus and the ramification of keyboard entry. A spacebar, for example, is tantamount to a "dismiss" button clicked via the mouse. This may sound like  a technicality or a user education scenario but in practice it is neither. It is a design flaw. And not a flaw of the application, one of the underlying operating system. Windows 2008 Server does not seem to suffer from the same weakness, so I am convinced it can be fixed at the OS level.

    What would be acceptable in this situation is the OS interpreting a focus stealing attempt as a taskbar pulse attempt, and then delivering the taskbar pulse. I love Microsoft product. It goes without saying that I could love them more.

    Best,

    Justin

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-10-28T03:39:20+00:00

    Try this (which happens to me everyday): Set up an Outlook rule to display an alert. When you get an email that fits the rule, the alert will take the focus and become the active window.

    If this does not happen to you, then there must be some setting that controls the behavior.

    I am running Windows 7 Ultimate, upgraded from Vista Ultimate.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-10-27T15:46:12+00:00

    For me it happens if I have a conversation going with a friend in messenger and both the convo window and the main app are not minimized and I'm looking at websites on Firefox or even when I'm playing a game. When certain Ads that are embedded within the main messenger window and conversation window change this is when the focus gets stolen doenst happen all the time. So perhaps its not the app that is stealing it but these advertisements that have some embedded code to cause this? It wouldn't surprise me considering how sneaky advertising companies can be.

    My system GPU is a AMD 6970 with the latest drivers with Aero on.

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