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
    2012-03-21T20:08:37+00:00

    I use Windows 7 Professsional on my work laptop and inactive windows which steal focus is driving me crazy and it is very dangerous.

    My experience has been that if the window of the active application is maximized and the inactive window of another application is minimized to the taskbar it will NOT steal focus, it will just simply flash in the taskbar.

    However, if the active window is not maximized and another inactive window which is not minimized completes a task it will steal the focus and become the active window.

    In my opinion, all applications which are running in the inactive window should be prevented from becoming the active window and simply flash in the taskbar.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-19T12:52:31+00:00

    quiet easy for me to reproduce, just start a vs 2010 project run the code and put a break point in.

    Make sure its winforms, add a button that has a sleep sleep for 30 seconds and returns a string, put the break point after the sleep before the return.

    Start the app then hit the button to trigger the break point action.

    NOW Before the break point hits go to another window( like notepad) and type some random garbage in notepad.

    When the break point hits you will be forced to the other window (the vs 2010 window)

    Window stolen focus, easy to replicate even works if your in IE or other windows.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-29T12:16:09+00:00

    Plug in an iPhone (or anything that triggers autoplay I suspect)

    When my iPhone battery is dying, I plug it in to the PC USB and carry on working, a little while later, I look up and everything I typed is gone because the autoplay window stole focus.

    This happens 100% of the time, on every windows 7 machine I've ever used (about 4/5 I think, but just Ultimate and Pro).

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