How to Prevent Programs From Stealing Focus in Windows

This article explains how to stop programs from popping up in front of other ones in Windows.

What Is Focus Stealing in Windows?

If you've ever been annoyed by a program that pops up in front of what you're doing without your permission, despite never selecting anything, you've been a victim of a program stealing focus.

Focus stealing is sometimes due to malicious programming by the software developer that's doing it. Most of the time, however, it's just buggy software or operating system behavior that you'll need to pin down and try to fix or avoid.

Can You Stop Programs From Stealing Focus?

Ideally, no other program but the one you're working in would accept mouse and keyboard input, and the window would stay on top of all the other ones you're not currently using.

Unfortunately, it's not possible for Windows to block all programs from stealing focus and still work properly—it's just not built with the brains to understand that.

However, that doesn't mean you don't have options.

How to Prevent Programs From Stealing Focus in Windows

Once you've identified what program needs to be dealt with, work through the troubleshooting below to make it stop happening for good:

1. Uninstall the offending program. Frankly, the easiest way to solve a problem with a program that's stealing focus is to remove it.

   You can remove programs in Windows from Control Panel with the Programs & Features applet, but free uninstaller tools work as well.

   If the focus stealing program is a background process, you can disable the process in Services, located in Administrative Tools/Windows Tools in all versions of Windows. Free programs like CCleaner also provide easy ways to disable programs that start automatically with Windows.

2. Reinstall the software program that's to blame. Assuming you need the program that's stealing focus, and it isn't doing so maliciously, simply reinstalling it may fix the problem.

   If there's a newer version of the program available, download that version to reinstall. Software developers regularly issue patches for their programs, one of which may have been to stop the program from stealing focus.

3. Check the program's options for settings that may be causing the focus stealing, and disable them. A software maker may see a full screen switch to their program as an "alert" feature that you want, but you see it as an unwelcome interruption.

4. Contact the software maker and let them know that their program is stealing focus. Give as much information as you can about the situation(s) where this occurs, and ask if they have a fix.

   Read through our How to Talk to Tech Support for help properly communicating the problem.

5. Last, but not least, you can always try a third-party, anti-focus-stealing tool, of which there are a few:

   • DeskPins is completely free and lets you "pin" any window, keeping it on top of all others, no matter what. Pinned windows are marked with a red pin and can be "auto-pinned" based on the window's title.
   • Window On Top is another free program that works in much the same way. Drag the mouse pointer from Window On Top and drop it on a window to make it stay on top. Or, use the Ctrl+F8 hotkey.

More on Stealing Focus in Windows XP

Windows XP actually allowed for focus stealing if one specific value in the Windows Registry was set in a specific way.

Following the short tutorial below, you can manually change that value to the one that prevents programs from stealing focus in Windows XP.

1. Open Registry Editor and locate the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive under My Computer, and select the (+) sign next to the folder name to expand the folder.

2. Continue to expand folders until you reach the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel registry key.

3. Select the Desktop key under Control Panel.

4. On the right-hand side of the editor, locate and double-click the ForegroundLockTimeout DWORD.

5. In the Edit DWORD Value window that appears, set the Value data field to 30d40. Make sure the option to the right is set to Hexadecimal.

   Those are zeros in that value, not 'o' letters. Hexadecimal doesn't include the letter o, so they wouldn't be accepted, but it should be mentioned nonetheless.

6. Select OK and then close Registry Editor.

7. Restart your computer so the changes you made can take effect.

From this point forward, programs you run in Windows XP should no longer steal the focus from the window that you're currently working in.

If you're not comfortable making manual changes to the registry yourself, a program from Microsoft called Tweak UI can do it for you. Once installed, head to Focus under the General area, and check the box to Prevent applications from stealing focus.

Honestly, though, if you're careful, the registry-based process explained above is perfectly safe and effective. You can always use the backup you made to restore the registry if things don't work out.