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How can I prevent new window focus from overriding cursor focus? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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For instance, if I'm opening a handful of apps that take a bit of time to start up, and then start dragging windows around to set up my workspace, each time an app finishes loading or a new window is created, I'll be yanked out of my dragging and forced into focus on that window.

I need a way to prevent these windows/apps from automatically seizing focus, it's REALLY fucking annoying. Steam especially will hog focus 3 or more fucking times in its startup process. This is such a stupid default function.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This issue easily makes top 10 Windows annoyances. Microsoft will just add more ads and AI instead of solving these fundamental issues. My other issue is making virtual desktops different (names, colors) to easily recognize them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

KDE Plasma has this problem as well. I think GNOME actually solved it by displaying a notification once a launched application is ready. Not sure if applications can still force themselves to be in front though.

[+] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

This does pretty much exactly what it should, and I like that it's just a set-and-forget, one-time-run thing. I don't know if this is just Steam, but Steam specifically is still pretty pervasive about yanking all focus away from whatever I'm doing multiple times in a row.

I tested by slowly dragging a window around on my second screen while Steam opened up on my first. Sure enough, three times my cursor just slipped off as the window came to a grinding halt and forced me to start the click-and-drag again, just to kick me off again until Steam was satisfied its presence was thoroughly announced.

I know this whole thing sounds like such a petty gripe, but words can't describe how absolutely aggravating this is when it happens regularly. If I ever worked with someone who behaved like this, I'd be going hands-on in no time and making sure they never come within eye-sight of me again.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

The old TweakUI (Microsoft Windows PowerToys) had an option to disable focus stealing. I doubt if works on current versions of Windows though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

There's Always on top power toy that might help.

I see conflicting reports of it losing focus.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

While I don't have a solution for what you're asking, my workaround was to make a script that opens every program I want on startup. Then I just boot my computer log in, then walk away for a few minutes while that i9 churns away.

I would be curious if there's a way to override that though. That and windows that open in the background (for no reason) drive me insane. I'd at least like it to be consistent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

That's not a bad idea for most at-work stations, but I frequently switch around throughout the day. That does give me the idea to have some specific apps open with a minimized argument (via batch file or shortcut arguments), but that only solves a fraction of my problem.