Pause/Break hotkey sometimes blocked by other programs

[Scott_Y]

Some programs are blocking the Pause/Break hotkey when they have focus (and only then -- no problem if they are running but not the focused program). Under that condition, Pause/Break does not open FARR, although Alt + Space will open it. One program which does this is Revo Uninstaller. This might be specific to Win 7 because, as I remember, I didn't have this problem in Win XP.

Has anyone had this experience, or have an idea about what is going on? Thanks.

Scott

[ewemoa]

Some programs are blocking the Pause/Break hotkey when they have focus (and only then -- no problem if they are running but not the focused program). Under that condition, Pause/Break does not open FARR,

Similar situation here for VirtualBox 4.0.10.

although Alt + Space will open it.

Not here.

I don't know what is going on in any detail, but I'm under the impression there may not be anything that can be done about it -- happy to be wrong about that

My testing was with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

[mouser]

just remember that you can set multiple hotkeys to trigger farr, so you can always set some backup ones to use if the normal key is blocked.

[Scott_Y]

Similar situation here for VirtualBox 4.0.10.

Do you mean that VirtualBox is blocking Pause/Break for FARR, similar to my experience with Revo Uninstaller?

Alt + Space... Not here.

I presume you have Alt + Space enabled in FARR Settings > Hotkeys.

I don't know what is going on in any detail, but I'm under the impression there may not be anything that can be done about it -- happy to be wrong about that

My testing was with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

Yes, I suspect it has something to do with Windows -- in which case, tough luck. I'm using Win 7 HP 64-bit

[Scott_Y]

just remember that you can set multiple hotkeys to trigger farr, so you can always set some backup ones to use if the normal key is blocked.

Got it, Mouser. And indeed, Alt + Space gets me past the problem. Nevertheless, it is strange that some specific programs block Pause/Break. I guess I'm mostly asking if anyone knows what the cause is. As we said above, Win 7 is a suspect; I wasn't suggesting it is FARR's fault. It's just strange.

[ewemoa]

Do you mean that VirtualBox is blocking Pause/Break for FARR, similar to my experience with Revo Uninstaller?

Yes.

I presume you have Alt + Space enabled in FARR Settings > Hotkeys.

Yes, I set that to test it.

[Scott_Y]

Add Paragon Backup & Recovery 2012 Free to the list of programs which block the Pause/Break hotkey.

[klsgfx]

Just to let you know, that you are not alone ^_^
I usually use Executor instead of FARR with Pause as hotkey. Under WinXp everything's fine. Using Win7 64Bit for example Totalcommander and Navision block this hotkey. So, I guess it is nothing what could be solved in FARR - I strongly think Win7 is the curse - sorry cause.

[Scott_Y]

I finally noticed the pattern to this problem. Not surprisingly, it is related to User Account Control. (I am using Win 7/64, but it almost certainly applies to Vista as well. It was not a problem in Win XP.)

In every case the offending program requires approval of the UAC message "Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?" The problem disappears if UAC is turned off (set to "Never notify"), which confirms that it is associated with UAC.

Questions:
1. Can other users confirm this pattern?

2. Does anyone know how to run the offending programs without requiring this UAC approval every time? I have experienced it with CCleaner, Revo Uninstaller, and Paragon Backup & Recovery, and it is reasonable that programs of that type would require higher security permission. But I also have the problem with two text-based database programs which are no security threat at all. In any case, I would like to permanently approve these programs so they can run without specific UAC approval. (I am using an Administrator account.) Thanks.

[Scott_Y]

2. Does anyone know how to run the offending programs without requiring this UAC approval every time? ...

This has been recommended to me, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. Let me know if it works for you.

Elevated Program Shortcut without UAC Prompt
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11949-elevated-program-shortcut-without-uac-prompt-create.html

[Ampa]

Pause / Break is blocked by apps running as admin in my PC (Win7 x64)