I want to sort this out! For example, say i am installin somin, and i wanna also write
an email. I start the email, and half way thru, i get the installing application stealing
the focus of my current work, and demanding a command! Irritates me a lot.

So how can i prevent this in Vista? With out Reg Edit, or other apps.

Tam...

you mean you want to do them both at the same time with your focus on both of them?

No say i'm installing some software. Whilst that's happenin, i could be writing an
email. Whilst i'm writing my email, the software installation might ask for on OK
command to contineu installing, but my email suffers, as Vista takes me away
from that co i can click on the OK.

I don't want that. I want my email to carry uninterrupted until i'm ready to click on ok.

Does that make sense?

so you want your email to stay always in the foreground, and the app installation to sit in the background, not sure if its possible to do, maybe something in tweak vista..otherwise not sure

do you mean the UAC?
the thing that asks you "cancel or allow?" stuffs?
If you want to make your email to stay on the foreground forever then maybe you can use dual monitor, Ive tried it

Easiest solution:

Write your email, then install the application.

Liquid Shadow said:

or! install the app then write the email! both very good solutions

LOL @ Liquid Shadow!

NO! I like to Mulit task! Seriously

why multitasking? isnt it easier to do one of them first?

OK, look, it's the principle of the thing. All i want is to know how to stop other
applications from stealing focus. Simple.
The email scenario was an example of how stealing focus works.

Without regedit or another app? So basically you want to change the behavior of the operating system without changing anything? That could be tough ...

Use Regedit:
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,1644.html

Perfect McFly! That's just what i was lookin for.
I shuda made things a bit clearer on how i could do it tho. I was just wondering
if Vista had the option to do this via control panel. The RegEdit was a last resort for
me, but it was quite straight forward. Thanks again McFly!

I take it that it worked?

Aye it worked. Cheers dude

Good good ... I may implement that one as well.

Hmmm, I hadn't actually tried this one, but it works great ... I kept having UnrealEd steal focus while it was starting up from PuTTY ... applied that change today and it minds its own business now.

Uh.......no joy here. That registry entry was already set to what you recommended, but Windows Mail keeps stealing focus while I'm composing a reply to a message -- every time WM checks for new mail, which I have set for 2 minutes, it steals focus. Still.

However, WM does *not* steal focus from any other program like that -- it just does it while I'm actively using it, i.e. creating new mail. Got a fix for that?

No you actually had to omit two zeros infront of the original reg.

ie: ForegroundLockTimeout 30d40

to

and edit it to :ForegroundLockTimeout to 0030d40

Just a thought...it's usually better to not be running apps, especially Windows native apps, while installing software. I do it sometimes as well, but keeping the run-time environment as clean as possible during an install is more stable.


Although I may try that registry hack for another reason. Hope the following makes sense;

After several early, very painful experiences I now always set my systems options up so that the mouse pointer does NOT automatically move to the "default" response in a yes/no/cancel type of window. That's because when those response windows pop-up from another application while I'm working in the current one, I have often caused the default response to be used because I'm still typing in and clicking the mouse as though I'm in my current application. But, I did NOT want the default to be selected. (e.g. an "Are you sure" 'Yes' response). In the past I have accidentally copied over entire directory structures because of that damn design*. (to be safe yet still convenient, the design should be that it takes the mouse pointer to the same window, but NOT to a specific choice)

It would be nice to not have to worry about such unexpected intrusions, and yet still be able to let the mouse pointer automatically move over to the pop-up's default selection. But with the hack at least now it should be under MY control. Don't know if that auto-selection will still happen since focus won't be retained on the pop-up, but it's worth a try. Presumably, the sound-cues for the pop-up will still occur so you are alerted that the pop-up window "appeared" under your currently active window?


*I touch-type, so don't have to look at the screen while I'm typing...and I also type so fast that by the time I notice the pop-up has appeared, I've already typed a dozen characters and one of those could have been the enter key. Similarly, I've already started to click on a font selection or something, when a damn pop-up appears and before I can stop it, I've clicked on the pop-up's default choice without intending to do so...thereby causing the default selection to be used even though that was not what I wanted.

I tried removing the first two zeroes and when I hit "enter" the value remained 0030d40. I have admin rights and have successfully edited the reg file before. Since I originally posted about the problem it has still occurred, albeit intermittently, which make it even harder to understand!

And your post is very difficult to understand, you say "omit the two front zeroes" but then say "edit it to :ForegroundLockTimeout to 0030d40"