Windows lose focus, seemingly at random

Anonymous

Since upgrading from Vista Business to 7 Business, I've run into an intermittent issue. Windows seem to lose focus at random. It may be happening more than I realize, since I have to be actively using the window to notice when it stops accepting my input. For instance, I might be scrolling to the bottom of a web page when I realize that moving the scroll wheel on my mouse no longer has any effect, or I might be typing something in Word while looking away from the screen, only to realize upon looking back that half of the sentence I'd typed was ignored because of a shift in focus. If I'm reading a particularly long web page, I'll occasionally notice the color of the transparent title bar change slightly when the focus changes, as though I'd clicked over to another program. I haven't been able to figure out what is stealing the focus whenever this happens, and it's a new occurrence under 7. Unfortunately, it's sporadic enough that trying to turn off programs running in the background to determine if they're the cause may prove kind of tricky. Has anyone else run into anything like this? If so, any fixes? I have a feeling the culprit may be the GMail Notifier or Trillian Astra, since they both pop up notices from time to time, but many (if not all) of those notices typically don't cause problems.

Any help you can offer would be great.

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Anonymous

Hey karpar,

Any third party software conflicting with Windows components can result to this behavior. Hence, putting your system in clean boot state can help in determining the culprit application or program. A clean boot loads only those files and programs that are absolutely required by the Operating System. Upon determining the background application causing the issue, you may contact the vendor for assistance.

Steps to perform clean boot:

1) Click Start, type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

2) If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

3) On the General tab, click Selective Startup.

4) Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box.

5) Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.

6) Click OK.

7) When you are prompted, click Restart.

After the computer starts, test and see whether the sporadic behavior of Windows loosing focus continues.

If not, we definitely know for sure that the behavior is contributed by third party software conflicts.

To determine which application, follow the steps mentioned in the article below.

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

After you determine the startup item or the service that causes the problem, contact the program manufacturer to determine whether the problem can be resolved

Having done so, don’t forget to return your computer to start normally.

Reset the computer to start as usual

1) Click Start, type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

2) If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

3) On the General tab, click the Normal Startup option, and then click OK.

4) When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Restart.

Hope this resolves the issue.

Regards,

Shinmila H - Microsoft Support

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74 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-01-17T23:03:51+00:00

I had this problem myself, and eventually found it to be because of an incompatible service that was loading/crashing/restarting repeatedly in the background. I uninstalled the (happened to be enterprise forensic) software that created the service and the problem ceased.

Look to the Event Viewer for items relating to service crashes and restarts.

This was the solution to my problem. Found SolarWinds trial software crashing every minute. Uninstalled solarwinds and problem disappeared. Thanks a bunch Paul C...
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Anonymous

2014-01-20T07:34:57+00:00

I am having this same problem on my Windows 8 PC, been happening for about a week now, very frustrating.
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Anonymous

2014-01-22T17:38:31+00:00

The "ANSWER" is not an answer. It is troubleshooting for idiots.

Microsoft knows about this problem. Do a google search for it. They dont CARE or they know what it is and fixing it will blow up a lot of other things. It is incompetant programming and persists because microsoft thinks theyre the only game in town (Say hello to android, apple and linux microsmurfs).

Ive had this problem for a year. It went away for a while.. and i do not know why.

Adobe flash can cause it and sometimes does. This is a known bug which neither adobe nor microsoft cares about. But even when you wipe adobe, disable the bloatware they sneak in the problem persists.

This problem for me also accompanies random mouse behavior. I considered it might be the mouse, the touchpad or the drivers but disabling each has no effect.

This is a known bug. Microsoft and it's incompetant paint by numbers "programmers" are simply incompetant and dont care.

I agree, the "answer" is not the answer. But Microsoft cannot be responsible for ironing out interactions with infinite shoddy software or hardware that may interact with its OS on the millions of different computers out there. As is proven in this post alone, so many different culprits have been discovered causing this problem, non of which are related to Windows or any "known bug". I'd invite you to go ahead and consider all the useless OSs you mention above. Abandon Windows and good riddance to you.
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Anonymous

2014-01-26T16:53:46+00:00

Awww thank you so much, am looking for hours to solve this issue, n with your word (Windows Problem Reporting) i got it in task manager triggering when out of focus. Just disabled it using this link http://blog.laptopmag.com/disable-error-reporting-windows. problem fixed.
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