[ WINDOWS ] Stop Windows from losing focus

It’s an annoying glitch, but sometimes — for no apparent reason — the active window I’m working in loses focus, nothing replaces it, just outlines of all open windows. I have to click on the window to bring it back again. What’s causing this problem? And how can I resolve it? [ NICK EASTMANN ]

Rob Mead-Green replies: Sometimes this problem — called ‘stealing focus’ can be traced to a third-party program. A tool like Focus ( www.happydroid.com/focus) can help you identify this. Download focus.zip, then extract focus.exe from the archive and double-click it. After a short pause, a command prompt window will appear. Minimise this and carry on as normal — as you switch active windows, it’ll record the change. Just wait until the next time the focus is stolen, then switch to the Focus window to find the culprit.

Nick followed our advice and traced his specific problem to dllhost.exe, which didn’t really help as it didn’t clearly lead back to another program. If you’re unable to locate the cause of your problem (and therefore take steps to rectify it, including uninstalling said program as a last resort), then go to efotinis.neocities.org/

deskpins and install DeskPins. This free program allows you to ‘pin’ a window so it’s always on top, preventing other applications or processes from stealing focus.