Focus Lost due to Alt+Tab switching

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!

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.

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by peejavery

This is not a glitch, nor a true problem.

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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.

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

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...

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

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.

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/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JasonD

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

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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...

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

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...

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.

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

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!

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

This is another test post from Firefox with McAfee SiteAdvisor installed, and nothing else, and it does not lose focus on me!

I have already determined that the McAfee SiteAdvisor plugin does not cause the issue. I have no other toolbars I can uninstall. The only remaining extensions are Shockwave Flash, the Java console, etc. -- things that I am sure everyone else has.

I can only conclude CodeGuru is the cause of the problem. But, it doesn't occur on every machine, as others have stated (do you guys have ad-blocking software installed?).

It would be great to find out how many other people are or are not experiencing this issue...

I have just disabled all IE 6.0 add-ons, and now the focus is kept as it should! I will have to play with this a bit and determine which one is causing it.

It also happens on my IE 6.

By the way is there any explanation why for me, IE takes 30 seconds to load a page at CG while Firefox takes around 1 second?

Ok, I have solved it. The Sun Java Console is causing the issue. Here is the current state of my IE 6.0:

(I see that uninstalling Alexa doesn't remove the AlxTb BHO Class add-on. Why can't software uninstall when you ask for it to uninstall? No wonder it is classified as adware.)

http://xona.com/postattachments/sun_...e_disabled.png


Can the people who do not witness the focus losing issue please confirm that they do not have this add-on installed?

And, why is the Sun Java Console causing the focus to be lost in CodeGuru via Alt+Tab, but in no other forum?

This isn't an attribute of the page, but rather of the OS. When the browser window loses focus, all bets are off. The browser is the application that should be remembering focus, not the web page.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JPnyc

The browser is the application that should be remembering focus, not the web page.

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Yes, I agree. And it does. For webpages with simple input forms (the FORM tag), the focus is remembered. For all other forums, the focus is remembered. For CodeGuru with Sun Java Console disabled, the focus is remembered. So, the browser is working. It does remember the focus. The webpages need not do this work for it.

But... this functionality is broken with CodeGuru, and only CodeGuru -- not the others, when the Sun Java Console add-on is enabled.

And which element has focus when you return to the browser that has CG loaded?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JPnyc

And which element has focus when you return to the browser that has CG loaded?

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I have analyzed this:

When I leave, and come back, the focus is still maintained. But, the cursor has become invisible, and does not accept inserting of characters. If you move the cursor with the arrow keys, or the control keys like Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down, the cursor still moves. You can test this because the Delete key still works. But, you can simply not type. Also, pressing Tab changes focus to the 'No icon' selection under 'Post Icons', which is what would normally happen if you pressed Tab during creation of a post.

Ok, so I've answered all the concerns. Has this been reported to those who can resolve it? Or is it still not concluded?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JasonD

Ok, I have solved it. The Sun Java Console is causing the issue.

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Now, surprisingly, while the Sun Java Console is still disabled, this loss of focus issue has returned (for IE 6.0). I'll have to toy some more and find out why. Again, I see no problems in any other forum.

Any progress on this issue?

Ok, the new culprit is Shockwave Flash Object. When disabled, the focus is maintained properly after Alt+Tab switching.

Hmm, but once I re-enabled it, the issue did not return. It still works as it should. There must be a conflict somewhere...

Very strange. I have disabled just Shockwave again, and the problem disappeared. But why didn't it return when I re-enabled it?

(Also, this add-on doesn't always appear in the list. Perhaps it waits until a site asks to use it. Yup, it does. It won't appear until a CodeGuru ad demands to use it.)

I just re-enabled it a second time, and the issue did not return, again. Wait... after one more browser restart, with no changes made, the issue does return.

So, CodeGuru does have an issue with Shockwave (and Sun Java Console) that no other forum has.