Current window loses focus

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I’ve been using computers for 35 years and pride myself on being able to solve most problems. But not this one! This is a real stumper for me. Here’s hoping you’re better!

I got a new Win7 laptop last October. A few months later, a weirdness appeared. It’s the worst kind: totally non-reproducible, random, and inconsistent. Here’s my best description:

While typing (in any application), suddenly the window I’m in loses focus. It “grays out” – but nothing replaces it! No window has focus. (At least, none that I can see.)

I somehow stumbled upon Alt-ESC (which I believe tells Windows to push the current window to the rear). Pressing that restores focus so I can continue typing. I’ve pressed Alt-ESC at least ten times just typing this far in this post.

Alt-TAB does not bring focus back. Instead, it goes to the previous window; it takes 2 Alt-TABs to get back to where I was typing.

I’ve stared at Process Explorer for hours it seems, but see nothing eating CPU cycles when this occurs. (Although there are many processes about which I have no clue.)

How can I learn what the current (mystery) window is? How can I stop this? While a fix would be lovely, I also want to know how I should have solves this myself!

Thanks in advance,

AL, the newly crowned “Mr. Alt-TAB”

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“Mr. Alt-TAB”

One thing you could do is to use an app such as What’s In Startup to see what apps are starting with Windows. This app works very well to disable or delete start up items.

Windows Answershas another possibility to try.

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Al, Sometimes the Desktop Window Manager (mangler?) causes focus problems. You can see if it’s involved by simply changing the service to manual and rebooting the PC. If the focus problem remains, DWM is innocent and can be turned back to automatic. If this fixes the focus problem, you can start looking for known problems between DWM and your video driver, etc.

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Let me add that I am experiencing the same problem. However, my symptoms do not occur as often, maybe every 10 to 20 minutes. I just mouse click the title bar to get focus back to my page.

It started is the past few weeks, so I suspect that it is associated with some software upgrade. My startup apps have not changed over the past several months, so I do not think this is the problem.

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Try the Alt-ESC trick, JC. It worked for me. (Of course, if I happened to be mousing at the time, a click sufficed.) I think my troubles also began after a Tuesday night update.

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Microsoft support thought the same thing. We spent an hour replacing DWM. No change.

Instead, the fix for me turned out to be the laptop’s Bluetooth receiver. Turned it off and no more problems.

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Research (i.e., Google) led me to some Dell forums where I discovered I was not alone. Other 15z laptops exhibited this weirdness, too. There were several proposed fixes involving software that wasn’t on my machine. But the fix that worked was merely to turn off the laptop’s Bluetooth receiver! It hasn’t occurred since.

Since I only use a BT mouse while on the road, I’ll just turn it back on if/when I need it.

My problem remains, though: I still don’t know how to find the solution myself. But at least it’s fixed! Thanks to all who responded.

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There’s a Registry fix you might want to try if it happens again: http://winhlp.com/node/862

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I tried that, Xircal, but with no good result. I set it to 200 seconds, but the problem still occurred.

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You could maybe try the second standalone utility called Window On Top which enables a program to maintain focus by remaining above others: http://www.skybn.com/

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I also tried the registry fix, setting it to 16 seconds, but it did not solve the problem.

Since Allowe mentioned a bluetooth connection, I am trying a reset of my wireless mouse. Keep your fingers crossed.

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JC: Resetting the mouse didn’t work. I went into the Bluetooth control panel and turned off the laptop’s BT receiver.

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I agree that resetting the mouse does not work. I have a desktop system with no other wireless devices than the mouse, so I can’t turn off anything.

My last mouse software upgrade was March 9 and this problem appeared over a month later.

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It might be a simple or not so simple hardware problem. Mouse might have something inside, a bug (real insect), or soda, coffee, some other sticky drink that got inside the mouse or keyboard causing an intermitting connection on the circuit board or inside the switches. Other possibilities static from a nearby device or clothing, even you are touching the mouse or keyboard or moving them slightly without realizing it.
Good luck and if it is not a hardware or software problem maybe a physic should be consulted 😀

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I agree that resetting the mouse does not work. I have a desktop system with no other wireless devices than the mouse, so I can’t turn off anything.

My last mouse software upgrade was March 9 and this problem appeared over a month later.

Try running a clean boot in order to determine whether a third party program is the culprit.

Instructions on how to proceed in this Microsoft article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

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maybe a physic should be consulted

or a psychic, after you’ve left the bathroom.

Zig

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Last Friday, I uninstalled the app “CutePDF” and the Ask.com toolbar and stuff it forced on me during install (about 1-2 weeks ago). I have not had the problem for the past 2 days. It will be interesting to see if the problem comes back next week when Firefox is displaying some web pages that do auto-updates.

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Last Friday, I uninstalled the app “CutePDF” and the Ask.com toolbar and stuff it forced on me during install (about 1-2 weeks ago). I have not had the problem for the past 2 days. It will be interesting to see if the problem comes back next week when Firefox is displaying some web pages that do auto-updates.

You always get the opportunity to opt out of bundled software such as the Ask toolbar. It’s merely a case of removing the checkmarks from the bundled software installation.

CutePDF is no exception and as shown in the screenshot, you need to uncheck all the boxes before proceeding with the installation.

31283-cutepdf_ask_toolbar

You should be able to find it in the Firefox Add-ons manager (hit CTRL+SHIFT+A to open it) in the Extensions menu. Click the “Remove” button to get rid of it.

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Thank you for the info, but you missed the point – as I said “stuff it forced on me”. I was aware that CutePDF would try to offer the Ask.com toolbar, so I carefully “unchecked” all of the boxes shown in your image. BUT, the toolbar was installed anyway!!

When I next ran my browsers, each said that Ask.com wanted to enable the toolbar. I said NO – to each of them. The Add-on manager of each browser showed that the toolbar was not enabled.

I uninstalled CutePDF because I wanted to be sure that it was not doing something else behind my back to cause the lost focus problem.

Today, I opened Firefox and the Wall Street Journal – Market Watch page. Immediately after doing a refresh of the page, Firefox lost focus. I don’t know if this was web page specific of just a problem with Firefox 13.0.1 – but that was the only app I had open at the time.

Still investigating…..

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Maybe it arrived via a different installation.

In any event, you can use this tool to remove all traces of it: http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/completely-remove-ask-toolbar-from-your-pc/

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Actually, Revo Uninstaller did a great job of uninstalling it.

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OK, More investigating has pointed to Firefox. See my post “Firefox – Possible source of windows losing focus” posted under the Third Party Browsers forum category.

Thanks to all for their suggestions.

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Sorry to revive an old thread, but I started suffering the loss of focus yesterday and hope this may help someone.

I am running Win 7 32bit, Office 2007 and Thunderbird. I was losing focus every few seconds in Excel, Thunderbird and another program, IGV 2.3 (Intergrative Genomics Viewer).

Checking Task Manager I saw a program was grabbing huge amounts of memory about every 1-2 seconds then releasing it. The program was NMIndexStoreSrv.exe A Google check revealed this was part of Nero7 CD/DVD burner, my version of which apparently does not play well with Windows 7. Apparently Nero v9 and 10 are OK.

From msconfig > startup I saw two items, Nero Home and Nero AG NeroCheck. I unchecked these in Startup and rebooted.

No more loss of focus!

Hope this may help someone …

Dennis W

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