Win7 Bug - New windows/notifications do not get focus

[Josh]

I recently upgraded my wife to Windows 7 Pro x64 and have had nothing but good things to say about the switch. Her system is the last in our house to move to Win7 and the first in my home to go x64.

The only issue I am having currently is that new windows popping up, I.E. clicking a folder on the desktop, do not open with focus at times. They appear behind other windows.

Has anyone encountered this and know of a workaround?

[4wd]

Are you crazy?!?

Many is the time I wish XP, (and Windows in general), would work that way...please, please, please tell me how you did it

[zridling]

Try running the UI in windows 7 basic. Apparently a few AV programs might be causing this oddity.

[Innuendo]

The only issue I am having currently is that new windows popping up, I.E. clicking a folder on the desktop, do not open with focus at times. They appear behind other windows.

Has anyone encountered this and know of a workaround?

-Josh (December 13, 2009, 03:46 PM)

Not only is there no work-around, but this is billed as a new feature of Windows 7. Microsoft has listened to the mass complaints of new windows & dialog boxes stealing focus from apps (How many times have you been on a roll in MS Word or similar typing your heart out & then looked up at the screen and something stole Word's window focus and half of what you typed was lost?) and this is the solution.

Now you can work with your apps without fear of anything stealing its focus freeing you to deal with intrusive dialog boxes in your own time on your terms.

Sorry you hate the new way of doing things, Josh, but MS has gotten quite a few compliments on finally implementing this new behavior.

[Josh]

I personally have no issues with it but my wife, on the other hand, does :-/ And as any married man knows, when your wife is not happy, you aren't happy either.

[f0dder]

I personally have no issues with it but my wife, on the other hand, does :-/ And as any married man knows, when your wife is not happy, you aren't happy either.

-Josh (December 14, 2009, 06:50 PM)

As any married man should know, when your wife is not happy, stuff her with Valium.

[tranglos]

How many times have you been on a roll in MS Word or similar typing your heart out & then looked up at the screen and something stole Word's window focus and half of what you typed was lost?)

-Innuendo (December 14, 2009, 06:43 PM)

Not often enough for it to be an issue, and I'm writing all the time. If you touch-type, you see when a box pops up. Maybe people should be installing fewer "helpful" applications that end with -gator or -buddy?

Not only is there no work-around, but this is billed as a new feature of Windows 7.

-Innuendo (December 14, 2009, 06:43 PM)

This feature was already present in XP, where you have an option to disable it (i.e. let windows steal focus). Has it been further "improved" in 7? Has it changed?

It's potentially dangerous too, because you may miss notifications that are important (or interesting to you), as they will be obscured by other windows. And it's a source of unending grief for users and coders who *want* a focus-stealing popup in some legitimate scenarios (e.g. when you press a hotkey to bring an application to foreground).

It's always been possible to code for non-intrusive popups (see Calendarscope for a perfect implementation). Users who've had problems with this should have taken the issue with application authors, instead of prodding MS to further hobble the OS.

Now you can work with your apps without fear of anything stealing its focus freeing you to deal with intrusive dialog boxes in your own time on your terms.

-Innuendo (December 14, 2009, 06:43 PM)

It seems to me that Josh is describing something a little different though - you click to start/open a window/application, and it opens but does not receive focus. That would be unbelievably brain-dead, e.g. start Word, then you still have to click it before you can start typing. Not the same as pop-up dialogs from already running apps. Thankfully I haven't observed it on my wife's installation of 7. Josh, could you please confirm?

[f0dder]

Focus-stealing is just about never ever legitimate - I, for one, welcome any steps taken to prevent focus-stealing. Unfortunately, at least on XP and below, it was possible to hack around the anti-stealing measures, and fscktarded coders who think they know better are doing that. I think the Windows Update box is a perfect example of something you don't want popping up & stealing focus.

But even "non-fatal" popups are doyc-damn annoying, especially for touch typists who aren't looking at the monitor, and find that they've spent the last minute not typing in their text editor or IDE.

Oh, and legitimate uses like getting focus on hotkey press after application has been hidden are possible.

[Innuendo]

Not often enough for it to be an issue, and I'm writing all the time. If you touch-type, you see when a box pops up. Maybe people should be installing fewer "helpful" applications that end with -gator or -buddy?

-tranglos (December 15, 2009, 05:49 AM)

Or AV apps? Or firewall apps? Or low disk-space messages? Or low batteries on your wireless mouse? Or....the list goes on and on and on.

This feature was already present in XP, where you have an option to disable it (i.e. let windows steal focus). Has it been further "improved" in 7? Has it changed?

Yes, MS provided an option to disable focus-stealing in XP. Then application developers started coding around this setting so their apps would still steal focus no matter what the setting had been set to do. Microsoft had enough of wayward software developers not playing by the rules, and rightfully so, and started playing hard ball. I applaud the measure myself.

It's potentially dangerous too, because you may miss notifications that are important (or interesting to you), as they will be obscured by other windows.

No...the taskbar still flashes like a Christmas tree. If you miss notifications by not being able to see that then kindly get thee to an optometrist.

And it's a source of unending grief for users and coders who *want* a focus-stealing popup in some legitimate scenarios (e.g. when you press a hotkey to bring an application to foreground).

That example does not apply here as that is not focus-stealing. Focus-stealing is an app throwing a popup in the user's face without the user's direction to do so. All your hot-keys will still work.

Users who've had problems with this should have taken the issue with application authors, instead of prodding MS to further hobble the OS.

No. The software authors should have followed established programming conventions and rules as set forth by Microsoft. This, IMHO, is a well-deserved newspaper smacked squarely on the guilty authors' noses.

It seems to me that Josh is describing something a little different though - you click to start/open a window/application, and it opens but does not receive focus. That would be unbelievably brain-dead, e.g. start Word, then you still have to click it before you can start typing. Not the same as pop-up dialogs from already running apps. Thankfully I haven't observed it on my wife's installation of 7. Josh, could you please confirm?

When I open an app it will receive focus once it's opened. The only time it doesn't is when I open an app and then I switch focus to an already opened app. Windows is smart enough to see that I want to work with the already opened app right now & will open the new app in the background. Opening an app & not switching focus should open the new app with the focus on it. Any other behavior may be due to a non-Windows 7 compliant program on the computer or maybe buggy video card drivers.

[Josh]

This is just annoying. I realize many users want windows to behave this way, myself included, but my wife is nagging me to go BACK TO VISTA to get this functionality back :-/

[4wd]

When it happens is the mouse positioned over the area where the window opens or over another area/window?

The last would imply Active Tracking may be enabled along with the option to raise windows made active by this tracking.

[tranglos]

The last would imply Active Tracking may be enabled along with the option to raise windows made active by this tracking.

-4wd (December 15, 2009, 06:47 PM)

Could be accidental triple-clicking as well: the double-click opens an application, then the instantaneous third click gives focus to the desktop or whatever window it happens to hit. Now that another window has been given focus via that additional click, the just-started app won't receive it. If the system is set up to launch stuff on a single click, then doing a double-click instead could trigger the same effect.

This seminal article on (not) stealing focus has a comment below it that describes such a scenario:
http://blogs.msdn.co...9/02/20/9435239.aspx

[4wd]

Could be accidental triple-clicking as well: the double-click opens an application, then the instantaneous third click gives focus to the desktop or whatever window it happens to hit.

-tranglos (December 15, 2009, 08:25 PM)

I realised that but the fact that it only seemed to be happening on Win7 and not the previous Vista installation I made the assumption, (I know, I know...), that they could tell the difference between accidental triple-click or not.

[Deozaan]

I'm experiencing the same problem. It's nice not to have the focus stolen all the time, but you really should be made aware when you run a program and UAC needs your attention before anything else can be done.

Often I think nothing happened and I go to click the shortcut (or whatever) again only to find out there's a UAC prompt hiding in the task bar.

[Carol Haynes]

It is a good idea if general popups don't stop your workflow but if UAC pops up that should demand attention. You should rarely see UAC in an ideal worl d so it really shouldn't be an issue.