IE8 the focus stealing punk

[TheStu]

On my work computer I have XP Pro SP3, Internet Explorer 8 and no admin rights.

IE keeps stealing focus which is a huge problem because most of what i do is in a web based tool. So I start a task there and then switch back over to my email, or excel or something else only to be kicked back over to IE after a variable amount of time. It is always enough time that I don't want to sit there twiddling my thumbs, but not quite enough to actually send an email.

And the worst part is that it usually is a 2-3 stage process, so if I alt-tab right back after IE rips me away, it steals focus again and then sometimes once more.

I had TweakUI installed with the blessing of IT, but that doesn't seem to do anything with IE. Is there anything else that I can do?

 

[Fardringle]

The "Prevent applications from stealing focus" option on the General tab in TweakUI doesn't stop it?

 

[TheStu]

The "Prevent applications from stealing focus" option on the General tab in TweakUI doesn't stop it?

No, that worked for everything but IE.

 

[Slugbait]

Do you have any browser toolbars or BHOs installed?

 

[TheStu]

Do you have any browser toolbars or BHOs installed?

No, no toolbars. What is a BHO? To the best of my knowledge I am running vanilla IE.

 

[bruceb]

BHO is short for "Browser Helper Objects" ... you may want to try IE7PRO from here:

http://www.ie7pro.com/

It will work with IE8 and has many features which may be of benefit to you .

 

[TheStu]

BHO is short for "Browser Helper Objects" ... you may want to try IE7PRO from here:

http://www.ie7pro.com/

It will work with IE8 and has many features which may be of benefit to you .

Suprisingly, I can install this tool. Unfortunately, it does not appear to change the focus behavior.

 

[gsaldivar]

Have you tried an alternate browser like Firefox, etc?

Shotgun solution: Bribe IT to install Virtualbox for you, and giggle as IE tries unsuccessfully to steal focus from within the (minimized) virtualized environment. 🙂

Shotgun solution #2: Bribe IT to allocate you an extra PC. Remote desktop to it, and giggle as IE tries unsuccessfully to steal focus from within the (minimized) RDP window. 🙂

 

[corkyg]

Stu, I too am running XP Pro/SP3 with IE8. Lots of updates to both since SP3. I have never experienced your problem. Maybe we can compare settings?

 

[TheStu]

Have you tried an alternate browser like Firefox, etc?

Shotgun solution: Bribe IT to install Virtualbox for you, and giggle as IE tries unsuccessfully to steal focus from within the (minimized) virtualized environment. 🙂

Shotgun solution #2: Bribe IT to allocate you an extra PC. Remote desktop to it, and giggle as IE tries unsuccessfully to steal focus from within the (minimized) RDP window. 🙂

I try to not talk too much about work since the company I work for has a contract with the DoD (and that is the account I am on). But the reason that I cannot run another browser is because of certificate errors that only IE will play nice with (which is to say, it will look the other way). I have connected from home using firefox and chrome and they both won't let you actually into the app. Safari will, but then it doesn't render the site correctly. IE9 will also let you in. My guess is that this thing has been heavily 'optimized' for IE.

The problem with your shotgun solutions (although entertaining 🙂) is that the web app that is stealing the focus is just about the only thing that I need IE for, and it is also what I need to actually do my job. Imagine if you had to use google docs (or the upcoming Office 365) to do all your work, minimizing the browser wouldn't be an option there.

Stu, I too am running XP Pro/SP3 with IE8. Lots of updates to both since SP3. I have never experienced your problem. Maybe we can compare settings?

We can try that. I honestly think that it is coded into the web app that we are using. I am beta testing the latest version of the app starting tomorrow, so who knows, maybe that fixed it (I doubt it).

What is the harm is letting that sucker blink at me from the task bar? That gets my attention without pissing me off, and the web app isn't fast enough to not piss me off.

 

[corkyg]

In view of your work environment, I am inclined to agree that it is part of the web app. Have you discussed this with your IT guy?

 

[TheStu]

In view of your work environment, I am inclined to agree that it is part of the web app. Have you discussed this with your IT guy?

I mentioned to him in the past and that was when we tried TweakUI. But as for the actual web app, he is not that up on how it works.

It looks like the newest version does not steal focus, at least not in beta, so we will see how that goes.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

 

[TheStu]

As an update;

The new version of the webapp still steals focus. Also, I have been given Admin rights on my machine, so if there is a more intrusive (read: regedit) way to make IE stop stealing focus, I am able to implement it now.

 

[gsaldivar]

In case you can't get a registry fix for this, here are some prepared VPC disk images. They are all patched up and ready to go, just download them and run. Good luck.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11575

 

[TheStu]

In case you can't get a registry fix for this, here are some prepared VPC disk images. They are all patched up and ready to go, just download them and run. Good luck.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=11575

That would something to do once I (maybe, someday) get my laptop. My desktop is a 3GHz P4 with 1GB RAM. It can hardly run my stuff in XP as it is, I don't want to contemplate what it would be like if it was trying to run it twice.

 

[gsaldivar]

That would something to do once I (maybe, someday) get my laptop. My desktop is a 3GHz P4 with 1GB RAM. It can hardly run my stuff in XP as it is, I don't want to contemplate what it would be like if it was trying to run it twice.

Gotcha. Sorry, I'm definitely spoiled with my Thinkpad W520 🙂