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This is on Windows XP.

I am not sure if this has happened all the time but I have certainly
noticed it lately a lot.. I will be about to type something into a
program and suddenly another program jumps up and I type something into
that instead, it seems to be almost any program, IE or whatever. It is
bloody annoying and very dangerous.

Anyone know how to change this? I tried googling quickly but maybe
didn't know the right way of describing that I wanted to search for.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks

On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 15:23:09 +1200, Nova wrote:

> This is on Windows XP.
>
> I am not sure if this has happened all the time but I have certainly
> noticed it lately a lot.. I will be about to type something into a
> program and suddenly another program jumps up and I type something into
> that instead, it seems to be almost any program, IE or whatever. It is
> bloody annoying and very dangerous.
>
> Anyone know how to change this? I tried googling quickly but maybe
> didn't know the right way of describing that I wanted to search for.
>
> Any tips would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks

You've got loads of malware running on your pc.

Install lavasoft and spybot for a start. You can find them at
download.com. Have you got any virus protection... if not,
free.grisoft.com is a good start.

Steve

Nova wrote:
> I am not sure if this has happened all the time but I have certainly
> noticed it lately a lot.. I will be about to type something into a
> program and suddenly another program jumps up and I type something into
> that instead, it seems to be almost any program, IE or whatever. It is
> bloody annoying and very dangerous.

Yes, some programs will steal the focus when they want your attention.
This is a design problem: Complain to the people who make the programs
which are stealing focus!

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

--
http://www.sherlocksoftware.org

On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 15:23:09 +1200, Nova wrote:

> This is on Windows XP.
>
> I am not sure if this has happened all the time but I have certainly
> noticed it lately a lot.. I will be about to type something into a
> program and suddenly another program jumps up and I type something into
> that instead, it seems to be almost any program, IE or whatever. It is
> bloody annoying and very dangerous.
>
> Anyone know how to change this? I tried googling quickly but maybe
> didn't know the right way of describing that I wanted to search for.
>
> Any tips would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks

Focus stealing it's called. If it isn't spyware...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx

Steve wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 15:23:09 +1200, Nova wrote:
>
>> This is on Windows XP.
>>
>> I am not sure if this has happened all the time but I have certainly
>> noticed it lately a lot.. I will be about to type something into a
>> program and suddenly another program jumps up and I type something into
>> that instead, it seems to be almost any program, IE or whatever. It is
>> bloody annoying and very dangerous.
>>
>> Anyone know how to change this? I tried googling quickly but maybe
>> didn't know the right way of describing that I wanted to search for.
>>
>> Any tips would be much appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
>
> You've got loads of malware running on your pc.
>
> Install lavasoft and spybot for a start. You can find them at
> download.com. Have you got any virus protection... if not,
> free.grisoft.com is a good start.
>
> Steve
>

Wrong, I hae adaward and spybot and run them almost nightly.
It's clean

I remember hearing it was just a registry setting sometime..

On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 15:23:09 +1200, Nova wrote:

> Any tips would be much appreciated.

Have you tried not having so many Windows Applications open at any given
time?

I mean, they cannot pop up if they are not open.

Also, if this is a recent change, have you tried checking for trogans,
viruses, root-kits, spyware, etc?

Have you installed the latest security fixes, etc?

Did this change occur after you made a change to your computer?

Did you try reversing that change to see if the problem resolved itself?


Have A Nice Cup of Tea

--
1/ Migration to Linux only costs money once. Higher Windows TCO is forever.
2/ "Shared source" is a poison pill. Open Source is freedom.
3/ Only the Windows boxes get the worms.

Nova wrote:
> Steve wrote:
*SNIP*
>
> Wrong, I hae adaward and spybot and run them almost nightly.
> It's clean
>
> I remember hearing it was just a registry setting sometime..

You *could* have spyware/malware and just not know it

SpyBotSD and AdAware are not *that* good you know.. try WebRoot
SpySweeper ( http://www.webroot.com/ ) it finds many that the other two
don't - independently proven by many magazines and software sites.

> I am not sure if this has happened all the time but I have certainly
> noticed it lately a lot.. I will be about to type something into a
> program and suddenly another program jumps up and I type something into
> that instead, it seems to be almost any program, IE or whatever. It is
> bloody annoying and very dangerous.

Is it a case of the focus switching to another already-open app, or
entirely new apps starting?

If it's focus-switching, is it because the other app had decided it needed
to tell you something, or was the switch for no apparent reason?

I have found the Power Toy that someone else mentioned to deal with
focus-switching to no longer works so well in XP. I would prefer the focus
to stay where I have currently got it (crazy, I know), so have said power
toy installed, and will set it to "don't steal focus" or whatever the
setting is. Within an hour-or-so of operation, the setting will revert,
which is a bit annoying. I've not really looked into it very far, beyond
swearing and just putting up with it.

I have also found that certain accidental key combinations I type
periodically seem to be shortcuts for starting Excel, PowerPoint, Word,
etc. Bloody annoying, as I cannot work out what it is that triggers it, so
cannot train my lazy fingers to make sure not to do them. I should just
learn to type more carefully, I guess . I'd sure like to disable these
shortcuts though. Again: never really looked into it, beyond muttering "oh
f*** off", and closing whichever app I've accidentally started.

--
Adam

Have A Nice Cup of Tea wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 15:23:09 +1200, Nova wrote:
>
>> Any tips would be much appreciated.
>
> Have you tried not having so many Windows Applications open at any given
> time?

What? Windows is well able to cope with lots of Windows apps open at the
same time. It might be primitive, but its not *that* primitive.

>
> I mean, they cannot pop up if they are not open.

Well, that's helpful. Might as well go back to DOS, eh?

>
> Also, if this is a recent change, have you tried checking for trogans,
> viruses, root-kits, spyware, etc?

OP says he's already done this. Why assume that all of Windows' problems
are due to viruses etc?

The behaviour described is not unusual for some applications; even with
ad and popup blocking, Firefox will still open windows in the background
that grab focus. It is bloody annoying.

The suggestion to use TweakUI made by someone else is a good one, there
is a setting in it to disable windows from grabbing focus - they flash a
preset number of times in the taskbar, instead. The setting is in the
"General" tab in TweakUI.

The other option is to edit the registry; HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel\Desktop\ForegroundLockTimeout key.

Adam Cameron wrote:
>> I am not sure if this has happened all the time but I have certainly
>> noticed it lately a lot.. I will be about to type something into a
>> program and suddenly another program jumps up and I type something into
>> that instead, it seems to be almost any program, IE or whatever. It is
>> bloody annoying and very dangerous.
>
> Is it a case of the focus switching to another already-open app, or
> entirely new apps starting?
>
> If it's focus-switching, is it because the other app had decided it needed
> to tell you something, or was the switch for no apparent reason?
>
> I have found the Power Toy that someone else mentioned to deal with
> focus-switching to no longer works so well in XP. I would prefer the focus
> to stay where I have currently got it (crazy, I know), so have said power
> toy installed, and will set it to "don't steal focus" or whatever the
> setting is. Within an hour-or-so of operation, the setting will revert,
> which is a bit annoying. I've not really looked into it very far, beyond
> swearing and just putting up with it.
>
> I have also found that certain accidental key combinations I type
> periodically seem to be shortcuts for starting Excel, PowerPoint, Word,
> etc. Bloody annoying, as I cannot work out what it is that triggers it, so
> cannot train my lazy fingers to make sure not to do them. I should just
> learn to type more carefully, I guess . I'd sure like to disable these
> shortcuts though. Again: never really looked into it, beyond muttering "oh
> f*** off", and closing whichever app I've accidentally started.
>

It is applications that I have started so has nothing to do with spyware
or malware, I might flick to an application to do something then flick
back to another but then the previous one steals the focus and I end up
hitting return in that or whatever I was doing. I tend do work with
many programs at the same time so it's really annoying.

I took the suggestions of the person that gave me links to the MS site
with all the nice programs there and it seems to have done the trick for
me so I am quite happy .

Thanks to everyone that replied btw .