oops, the IE download example is already in the article, my apology
a focus stealing scenario :
one evening,i was really tired but due to my zeal to learn c# i started reading an e-book.Then i got to the c# OOP part which i was eager to readā¦out of nowhere this pop-up pops up :AVG Anti virus -updating (WTF!!!).It drifted my focus from what i was reading such that after minimizing it i couldnāt make sense out of the e-book i was reading .I just shut down the pc and went to sleep .freaking focus thieves.
one time i had a massive query i had constructed for use the next day. that evening windoze did an update and rebooted so the query was gone forever. so much for automatic updates.
i pretty much hate all anti-virus programs. theyāre more of a hindrance than help.
About IE:
I always check the checkbox on the download dialog, so that it just quietly completes. But I still get the annoying ācopying filesā dialogā¦ Iāve already downloaded the file to the SAME partition, why does it have to COPY the file to the destination, when it could have moved it in less than a fraction of a secondā¦
is this ForegroundLockTimeout you speak of the reason that miranda doesnāt pop up message windows for me? iāve always been annoyed that new instant messages donāt pop up on top, even when i have expressly told them to do so.
instead of prompt box that appears on the screen why not make it like google pop up. It only goes on the lower right screen and it doesnt grab someones focus though it gets attention which is obviously its purpose.
try this programmer. try this.
@ fly.floh :
Even Firefox does it when a download is over.
It is annoying when you try to load many files.
The one that annoys me most is Firefoxās Automatic Updates, which seem to be once a week. You know the dialog, the one that makes you install the update āNowā or āWhen you restartā. No option for āNeverā, mind you. Call me a control freak, but thatās not cool.
Ironically, as I typed this, the Outlook Meeting reminder stole my focus twice.
Some caveats.
If I have an app running full-screen, itās because I want to give it my full attention. Iām really surprised Windows allows this.
Itās quite rare, but I have been kicked out of full-screen games when a poorly written app forcefully pushes itself to the top. Iām pretty sure this isnāt an easy thing to do-- that takes a special level of incompetent programming.
I have to assume I am not the only person who has participated in the race where you are trying to type something in the IE address bar while it is loading a web page. If you are quick enough to get it all typed in before the new page starts loading, if not you will have to repeatedly click back on the address bar to take the focus off the loading page.
To be fair, we canāt blame this entirely on IE. If there is JavaScript setting the focus to an element on the page (eg, Google search box) then the focus will be shifted as you describe. There is an argument from some usability folks that web pages should never explicitly set focus because the user doesnāt expect this.
Itās quite rare, but I have been kicked out of full-screen games
when a poorly written app forcefully pushes itself to the top. Iām
pretty sure this isnāt an easy thing to do-- that takes a special
level of incompetent programming.
And the windows āyou really do wan to reboot now you foolā dialog is one of the ones that will do it.
I concur
An awful one is when you get a login box popped forward, with the password field highlighted ā with a saved password. If you donāt know the password, itās a terrible feeling when you type ālol [enter]ā into that box and wiped out the saved one.
Re: Slow, bloated apps starting in different workspaces.
Mac does this too. Itās freaking annoying. FF is the worst. One of the reasons I think I donāt experience any problems with focus stealing in Mac is my usage pattern. I run six workspaces, with my Mail, FireFox, a terminal screen, Wireshark and iTunes open, with the sixth reserved for short use apps. I spend almost all of my time CTRL up / down between my browser and terminal.
I used to have this problem. Recently switched to a Mac and donāt have it any more. I still use Windows Messenger as it seems to be the de facto IM client in SA, and even when I disconnect my NIC to cross over to a machine Iām building, all that happens is a notification behind my terminal window and an angry Messenger icon jumping up and down in the dock. I can live with that. Focus stealing is the devil.
I have seen this happen many, many times. The most memorable example was at a university symposium where a visiting professor was showing a Powerpoint presentation and a huge antivirus software update slid up the projection screen like a piece of radioactive toast. A hundred PhDs and academics sat there staring at it. The visiting professor was using a wireless clicker and did not have keyboard access. She tried to use the cursor keys on the clicker to get rid of it but, of course, the updater interpreted that to mean āgo ahead and download GB of updates and restart the machineā.
The entire symposium was blocked for several minutes until a tech turned off the screen and the professor continued the lecture without the presentation.
This is one of my pet peeves with Windows. Itās so much less of a problem on OS X that when I first switched I thought the issue was gone. There is no way all the app devs are going to fix this. It must to be fixed at the OS level.
One of those little things that drives people nuts and affects user experience. The worst is typing and getting a pop up that sends your characters to a box. Why canāt there be a user lockout for certain activities?
This kind of thing will never be fixed in the current Windows code base. Itās a Version 2 item for when MS wants to copy Appleās OS switch and license or rewrite their whole UI.
Amen brother. This makes my top 5 list of Windows annoyances.
Thereās another one I would consider adding, though Iām not sure how common it is. When I click on certain applications on the taskbar that donāt have focus, and those applications are not minimized, they get focus and minimize. Then I have to click the taskbar icon again to see the app I was trying to see. Argh! (maybe itās poor programming on the developerās part, I donāt knowā¦ but maybe the OS shouldnāt let this situation arise?)
Hallelujah! Preach it brother Jeff. Iāve been screaming about this for years. It happens more often in Windows than in Gnome/KDE, but it is the single greatest annoyance using GUI operating systems.
Iāve almost decided to go exclusively command line just because of this issue. Iām going to print out your blog post and put it up in my office.
Itās quite rare, but I have been kicked out of full-screen games when a poorly written app forcefully pushes itself to the top. Iām pretty sure this isnāt an easy thing to do-- that takes a special level of incompetent programming.
The AIM messenger is very good at that particular trick. Even games that I canāt even Alt-Tab out from, it can take them all down when someone pops up a new message window.