Focus Lost due to Alt+Tab switching

[JasonD]

Suggestion to improve ease of making better posts:

The forum does not maintain focus via Alt+Tab. This impedes efforts of making a 'proper' post. For example, I like to include convenient links, and will do so if it is easy, but if I Alt+Tab away to grab a link, and lose my focus when I come back, it becomes a hassle. This catches me every time, and I find that I don't include links I normally would, because they aren't important enough to justify the annoyance in inserting them.

Thanks for listening!

[PeejAvery]

Are you talking about when you are writing a post, then press ALT + TAB then switch back, that the message posting box does not have focus?

If this is the case, you cannot truly remedy it. The only way would to use an onfocus() call which would keep you from ever using any other HTML element. This is not a glitch, nor a true problem. It is the way any web browser is programmed to operate.

[JasonD]

Yes, that's exactly what I am talking about. For IE 6.0.

This is not a glitch, nor a true problem.

It's not? It doesn't keep focus. It's a glitch and a problem. If not with the software, than with the web browser.

DevShed doesn't have a problem with this. So, it is solvable.

[PeejAvery]

So I got on to a work machine with IE 6 and I do not have the problem. What extensions do you have installed?

[JasonD]

Oh, so your experience with IE 6 is that it doesn't lose focus? Can anyone else comment on their experience? I'd love to know if this is just me.

As for extensions, I am not sure if you mean add-ons, or toolbars, or something else, or all the above, but I don't believe I have anything unusual... Google toolbar, McAfee SiteAdvisor (great product, although the behaviour I mentioned occurred before this was installed), Alexa toolbar, Shockwave flash, Java console, stuff like that...

[JasonD]

I have confirmed that Firefox 1.5.0.7 (the latest version) keeps proper focus after Alt+Tab.

[PeejAvery]

Well, my primary browser is Safari and that is fine also.

I would suggest, hiding all toolbars except the navigation one. Then re-open your browser and test it.

[JasonD]

Yes, I tried that, and it doesn't solve the problem. But, this isn't very conclusive, since hiding the toolbars doesn't mean that they are necessarily deactivated.

Thus, I was going to uninstall Alexa, and I got caught up, as my updated virus scanner, Avast!, detects the uninstall.exe as adware (as well as the install file, for that matter). Thus, it doesn't let me run it. But, I can let Ad-Aware remove Alexa for me, so I will give this a shot, and let you know.

Incidentally, forums running phpBB do not have this focus problem, either:
http://xona.com/forums/

[JasonD]

Incidentally, forums running phpBB do not have this focus problem, either:
http://xona.com/forums/

I should mention that, AFAIK, I don't have any extension installed that is not relatively popular. Thus, even if one of these extensions is at fault, which is unfortunate, it would be nice if the CodeGuru forums were unaffected by it, like most other forums. Not many people are willing to find out who is at fault; thus, it's nice to have software that works no matter what. It makes for a good experience no matter who comes to visit.

I think a lot of us can relate to that being involved in software development, dealing with hardware and software glitches that we have no power to correct on our customers' machines...

[dglienna]

Erase your cookies, and delete your temp files. You can't be the only one with the complaint.

[JasonD]

I will try that, thanks.

Nonetheless, it appears to only be a problem with CodeGuru. It is something unique to CodeGuru. Now whether this is a cause of CodeGuru or not, I don't know. Perhaps it is the advertising mechanism used. I don't know what else could be interfering with the site in such a way...

[JasonD]

dglienna, I deleted all temporary files, and all cookies, and the problem is not solved. I should also note that the log-in screen also has this problem.

[JasonD]

peejavery, I uninstalled the Alexa Toolbar, and this did not solve the problem.

[Matthew Doucette]

I have come here to test this out, and I also have the problem. It doesn't seem like much, but it is quite annoying when it happens. I also tested that phpBB forums do not lose focus with my setup.

My setup:
IE 6.0
Google Toolbar
Alexa Toolbar
McAfee SiteAdvisor plugin

As Jason said, these are all extremely popular settings. (The least popular would be SiteAdvisor.)

Windows XP Home fully updated; every update has been installed.

Another reason loss of focus is a problem is when other programs steal your focus (like IE stealing my focus right now multiple times as I check Windows Update on it), you cannot quickly come back and continue typing with a quick Alt-Tab. Even though stealing focus should not happen (in my opinion), it makes it twice as detrimental with the loss of focus!

[JasonD]

peejavery, I uninstalled Google Toolbar, and this also did not solve the problem.