Text entry causes Window to be deactived

[steeve]

has anyone seen this weird problem:

a text entry box is open for some app (for example, text entry for this forum using firefox).
i enter one letter and the firefox window is immediately no longer the active window.
so tapping the keyboard does not enter text.
if i mouse click in the text window, i can enter one more letter then the browser is again no longer the active window.

it happens with different apps from time to time. if i close the app and re-open, behaviour is usually normal again

this is XP pro sp3, a recent fresh install.

i have a lot of apps running at different times. i started using online armour firewall, thought that might be the culprit...but i stopped running OA a week ago, and it still happens.

i run yadis real-time backup. but the prob can still occur when yadis is not running.

because it is intermittent, it's hard to isolate.

 

[gbhall]

Strange ! maybe malware is seizing the focus when you start keying. I can only suggest you check for malware - see the malware forum and follow eight-steps.

 

[steeve]

ok i think i found the problem...a one-off, i would think!

i run a small app called RBTray which sweetly minimizes running apps to the system tray by right clicking on the minimize button.

when i re-installed windows i didn't re-install RBTray, because it seemed to run just fine right out of its folder. but i suspect some vital reg entry was missing which caused the bad behaviour.

re-installed the latest version of RBTray and ... all good

 

[LookinAround]

don't know if this might also help... but you can also use tweakui (it installs itself in C:\Windows\system32\).

Click General->Focus and check Prevent applications from stealing focus

 

[steeve]

thanks, that is a useful tweak