Comandment #8: “Thou shall not steal”
How’s this for an example of why stealing focus is bad:
That’s the reason why I don’t let my programmers talk to each other. For example, if there’re two of them, for one it’s always faster (1 minute) to ask something that he’s forgotten (class name, how to use a specific command in editor, etc), then to read the manual (3 minutes). But for the other programmer it’s an interruption (15 minutes!!!). After he switches to another task, he has to switch back, remember what he was doing, the structure, etc. So I don’t let them sit together - and it really affects their productivity.
While not quite the same, I’ve accidentally deleted accounts using Novell’s Console One because of the quirkiness of how it manages focuses. Just as annoying I suppose.
I HATE that stupid popup so much. If I am in-game and it comes up it minimizes my window, I have a lame graphics card so I can’t tab back into my game! RUINING MY GAME! =(
If the Devil contributed anything to software, or has any influence in Redmond, I’m sure this is his greatest (most malevolent) contribution…
110% agreed - Stealing focus is nothing short of Satanic.
As for “so long as it is due to a user generated action” - I’d say that’s not “stealing” then. It’s due to a user action. Stealing is not due to a user action.
Stealing the focus is perfectly acceptable,
so long as it is due to a user generated action.
Adobe Reader’s update or confirm dialog sometimes doesnt pop up- stealing focus- but pops under, which seems to make the program freeze.
never acceptable? dude just disable automatic updates, and btw. dont use adobe reader either.
Ryan, see Rhett Torek’s post, above. It was a hypothetical example. All modern source control systems use two-phase commit, as does Team System.
Yeah, sorry, but Mac OS X can do it just as much as anything else. One of the worst offenders is Software Update. We have a lot of hosts at work that we don’t update except at fixed times, since they’re production servers. But if you log in via Apple Remote Desktop and start doing something, not only does Software Update pop up in front of whatever else you’re doing, but “Install N items” is the default choice in the dialog! Why in the name of God is a potentially destructive choice, in an app you didn’t even consciously start, the default?
The fact that their source control is so flimsy should be warning enough. We use Subversion where I work. If a commit fails, it gets rolled back. No half-in, half-out states to worry about. I’ve had plenty of problems with dialogs stealing focus myself, but nothing that has ever rendered an entire project useless.
stealing focus in this particular case, and few others, are remains of psychological trauma from time when ms operating systems had variety and severity of security issues in such a degree that could cause trauma. 
Those MS bastards! 
Just started download of the MS Office SP3 updates for office, project and visio. A whooping 202208KB - not something you download in a couple of minutes, no matter how good your internet connection is.
The ‘Office Update Installation Wizard – Web Page Dialog’ window pops up , and it doesn’t include any option to minimize the window, nor are you able to minimize the IE window that initiated the download.
just wanted to add my experience. my firewall kept giving me notifications that a pc on my lan is trying to access my comp, allow or disallow… one such notification came while i was typing a mail, my finger pressed the key “a” simultaneously as the popup came, the focus shifted to the popup, the “a” keypress nicely coincided with “a” for allow, the pc got access to my comp, infected it with GOD know what virus… had to do a clean format…
man, do i hate my firewall!!
I’m so glad that KDE has it right. Though, somehow, KDE does allow some applications to steal focus (emacs!!) and they’ve kept the mechanism for disallowing it a secret. Searching the personal settings for “steal” yields nothing; searching for “focus” gets you a “focus” page that has nothing at all about stealing; and Googling has only gotten me here. ICK
There was a program once which I believe could change all of these settings without having to do it through the registry. Also those annoying popups.
dsfdas
By a great coincidence, I came across this just as I was coding a little app to monitor another application and pop up when necessary. All I can say is, Microsoft doesn’t make it easy. I tried ShowWindow with SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE, but the window was still getting the focus. Strangely enough, if you minimized the window and let it pop up again, it worked correctly. Now my startup code flashes the window briefly before minimizing it, just to make sure the focus works properly later.
The reg file thing doesn’t even work for MS’s OWN product, IE! I am running Vista and I get focus steals all over the place. Even from Vista. (makes me miss TweakUI and XP)
The two most annoying, frequent, and destructive are…
File Copy Dialogs
Downloads Complete
Why can’t MS just add a option in the CP for this??? BAAAAAAHHH!!!
“Do you know that the 90%+ users of windows will never reboot (or do anything, no matter if the taskbar is flashing or a new icon appear in the tray bar) unless they are forced to?”
That may be true, but Microsoft should consider cutting competent users some slack every now and again. Vista gives you the impression of being a giant, dirty two-fingered salute to anyone who is even slightly knowledgeable in the use of their PC. The lack of attention given to the supremely annoying focus problem (supposedly fixed in Windows 2000!!) is another sign that Microsoft doesn’t care about you if you can tell the difference between “suspend” and “off”. Productivity and convenience are out, idiot-proofing is in. And idiots don’t use the keyboard.
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