Focus taken by email program; Alt-tab goes to some 3rd window, instead of where I was.

[micky]

In many ways this is a small matter, but it's definitely an annoyance.

Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus. When I want to get back to where
I was, using Alt-tab, it always goes to some 3rd window, unrelated to
Eudora or where I had been. I should have asked years ago if there
was a way to fix this, but I figured there was not. Do you people
experience this too? Surely it's not just me. I sort of recall or
assume there have been other sources of the problem besides Eudora,
which I know few people use.

Is there a fix?

Is it only in win10? My new win11 laptop should come soon. Have they
found and fixed this in win11?

I guess I'm asking now because I optimistically think it will be fixed
in win11, and I want to ask before I forget the problem existed. (My
desktop still runs win10, but mostly only web browswers and I don't
remember this problem occurring.)

Subject: Focus taken by email program; Alt-tab goes to some 3rd window,
instead of where I was.

[Andy Burns]

Post by micky
Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus.

Sounds like a Eudora issue not Win10, nothing should steal focus all by
itself, so I wouldn't hold your hopes too high that Win11 will be any
different ... how old is your Eudora version?

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:52:36 +0000, Andy

Post by Andy Burns

Post by micky
Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus.

Sounds like a Eudora issue not Win10, nothing should steal focus all by
itself, so I wouldn't hold your hopes too high that Win11 will be any
different ... how old is your Eudora version?

2006. Aged in oak casks. I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.

I would think the OS is completely in charge of saving the previous
window and directing Alt-tab to the previous window. Unless Eudora had
one or two specific lines to go out of Eudora files and change the
"PreviousWindow" value, and why would a sane programmer do that?

[Andy Burns]

Post by micky
I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.

I don't suppose Win-Tab does anything different?

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 17:14:43 +0000, Andy

Post by Andy Burns

Post by micky
I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.

I don't suppose Win-Tab does anything different?

I don't know. I was hoping to try your suggestion befoe I posted back,
but there hasn't been another occurrence of focus stealing.

[Paul]

Post by micky
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:52:36 +0000, Andy

Post by Andy Burns

Post by micky
Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus.

Sounds like a Eudora issue not Win10, nothing should steal focus all by
itself, so I wouldn't hold your hopes too high that Win11 will be any
different ... how old is your Eudora version?

2006. Aged in oak casks. I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.
I would think the OS is completely in charge of saving the previous
window and directing Alt-tab to the previous window. Unless Eudora had
one or two specific lines to go out of Eudora files and change the
"PreviousWindow" value, and why would a sane programmer do that?

I have a Win7 and a Win11 open at the moment, and
alt-tab seems pretty well behaved to me. You have to
look at the graphic in the center of the screen, to
orient yourself, so you can advance to the window you want.

Maybe windows treats Metro.Apps and Win32 graphical windows differently.
You can check Task Manager, and see if the Session ID is weird. I see
my stuff is Session 1 and the system executables are in Session 0.
And if you are using fast user switching, another users programs might
be Session 2 or something. The Session number could mess with the
sequence of windows presented. Just a guess.

I don't know how many other ways there are of diverting attention
away from a window like that. There is bring window to front,
or bring window behind, and that seemed to have some dependency
on whether something was Run As Administrator. Would that have
the same Session Number ? Dunno.

Maybe some program like Explorer Patcher, Classic Shell,
StartIsBack is involved ?

Paul

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 12:49:13 -0500, Paul

Post by Paul

Post by micky
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:52:36 +0000, Andy

Post by Andy Burns

Post by micky
Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus.

Sounds like a Eudora issue not Win10, nothing should steal focus all by
itself, so I wouldn't hold your hopes too high that Win11 will be any
different ... how old is your Eudora version?

2006. Aged in oak casks. I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.
I would think the OS is completely in charge of saving the previous
window and directing Alt-tab to the previous window. Unless Eudora had
one or two specific lines to go out of Eudora files and change the
"PreviousWindow" value, and why would a sane programmer do that?

I have a Win7 and a Win11 open at the moment, and
alt-tab seems pretty well behaved to me. You have to
look at the graphic in the center of the screen, to
orient yourself, so you can advance to the window you want.

The thing is, I don't look at all. It's part of touch-typing and works
most of the time to go back to where I was or maybe two programs back.
Sometimes I remember the one 2 programs back.

BTW, after it goes to a 3rd program, after that I think I usuall do
alt-tab twice to skip where I started and go where I intended, and that
doesn't work either. I'm back where I started (which shouldn't have
happeened because I did it twice) Or something like that.

Post by Paul
Maybe windows treats Metro.Apps and Win32 graphical windows differently.
You can check Task Manager, and see if the Session ID is weird. I see
my stuff is Session 1 and the system executables are in Session 0.
And if you are using fast user switching, another users programs might
be Session 2 or something. The Session number could mess with the
sequence of windows presented. Just a guess.
I don't know how many other ways there are of diverting attention
away from a window like that. There is bring window to front,
or bring window behind, and that seemed to have some dependency
on whether something was Run As Administrator. Would that have
the same Session Number ? Dunno.
Maybe some program like Explorer Patcher, Classic Shell,
StartIsBack is involved ?

I am running Classic Shell, but I thought it affected only appearance. I
will ask the other guy the question you have above.

Post by Paul
Paul

[Rick]

Post by micky
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:52:36 +0000, Andy

Post by Andy Burns

Post by micky
Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus.

Sounds like a Eudora issue not Win10, nothing should steal focus all by
itself, so I wouldn't hold your hopes too high that Win11 will be any
different ... how old is your Eudora version?

2006. Aged in oak casks. I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.
I would think the OS is completely in charge of saving the previous
window and directing Alt-tab to the previous window. Unless Eudora had
one or two specific lines to go out of Eudora files and change the
"PreviousWindow" value, and why would a sane programmer do that?

I have the same problem with Excel. With every other app, I can switch
between two screens easily by doing Alt-Tab, even with several screens
open. But if one of them is Excel, I can alt-tab to the other but then
going back to the Excel screen the Alt-Tab doesn't always work.

If you do the Alt-Tab and hold down the ALt you can see all your screens
arranged. With non Excel screens, the two tabs I'm switching between
always arrange them selves as the top two screens. But if the Excel
screen is 6th or 7th, it stays there, so Alt-Tab just goes back to the
top two screens. Sometimes I can shift to the Excel screen by doing
alt-shift-tab, but alt-tab doesn't usually work. In contrast, I never
had this problem with Win 7 where Alt-tab always worked even if one of
the apps was Excel

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 15:52:16 -0500, Rick

Post by Rick

Post by micky
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:52:36 +0000, Andy

Post by Andy Burns

Post by micky
Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus.

Sounds like a Eudora issue not Win10, nothing should steal focus all by
itself, so I wouldn't hold your hopes too high that Win11 will be any
different ... how old is your Eudora version?

2006. Aged in oak casks. I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.
I would think the OS is completely in charge of saving the previous
window and directing Alt-tab to the previous window. Unless Eudora had
one or two specific lines to go out of Eudora files and change the
"PreviousWindow" value, and why would a sane programmer do that?

I have the same problem with Excel. With every other app, I can switch
between two screens easily by doing Alt-Tab, even with several screens
open. But if one of them is Excel, I can alt-tab to the other but then
going back to the Excel screen the Alt-Tab doesn't always work.

That's very intersting. I can't even imagine how complicated the code
must be to get this to work as well as it does.

Post by Rick
If you do the Alt-Tab and hold down the ALt you can see all your screens
arranged. With non Excel screens, the two tabs I'm switching between
always arrange them selves as the top two screens.

Right. I don't look most of the time, but I still know what you mean.

Post by Rick
But if the Excel
screen is 6th or 7th, it stays there, so Alt-Tab just goes back to the
top two screens. Sometimes I can shift to the Excel screen by doing
alt-shift-tab, but alt-tab doesn't usually work. In contrast, I never
had this problem with Win 7 where Alt-tab always worked even if one of
the apps was Excel

This is cross posted to the Eudora ng, which is pretty dormant, but
there is also a Eudora mailing list tha tI posted to, and one guy there
says he's using win11 now and the problem is the same. ;-)

He is blind and this is a much bigger problem for him than for us. I
will suggest that he only dl mail when he chooses, not on a timer. When
we started mail took much longer to download and we wanted it in
background, but now maybe time doesn't matter. But I don't see how
this could be applied to Excel.

Of course it's not that serious for u s but the kind of people who read
this ng won't to fix every little thing, OR they are just curious about
such thing.

[micky]

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Sat, 14 Dec 2024 03:48:26 -0500, micky

Post by micky
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 15:52:16 -0500, Rick

Post by Rick

Post by micky
In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Tue, 10 Dec 2024 16:52:36 +0000, Andy

Post by Andy Burns

Post by micky
Sometimes (but not always, go figure) when Eudora fetches email (and
probably when other programs insist on focus), it interrupts what I'm
doing and takes the computer's focus.

Sounds like a Eudora issue not Win10, nothing should steal focus all by
itself, so I wouldn't hold your hopes too high that Win11 will be any
different ... how old is your Eudora version?

2006. Aged in oak casks. I don't mind the stealing focus. I just don't
understand why alt-tab doesn't take it back to where it was.
I would think the OS is completely in charge of saving the previous
window and directing Alt-tab to the previous window. Unless Eudora had
one or two specific lines to go out of Eudora files and change the
"PreviousWindow" value, and why would a sane programmer do that?

I have the same problem with Excel. With every other app, I can switch
between two screens easily by doing Alt-Tab, even with several screens
open. But if one of them is Excel, I can alt-tab to the other but then
going back to the Excel screen the Alt-Tab doesn't always work.

That's very intersting. I can't even imagine how complicated the code
must be to get this to work as well as it does.

Post by Rick
If you do the Alt-Tab and hold down the ALt you can see all your screens
arranged. With non Excel screens, the two tabs I'm switching between
always arrange them selves as the top two screens.

Right. I don't look most of the time, but I still know what you mean.

Post by Rick
But if the Excel
screen is 6th or 7th, it stays there, so Alt-Tab just goes back to the
top two screens. Sometimes I can shift to the Excel screen by doing
alt-shift-tab, but alt-tab doesn't usually work. In contrast, I never
had this problem with Win 7 where Alt-tab always worked even if one of
the apps was Excel

This is cross posted to the Eudora ng, which is pretty dormant, but
there is also a Eudora mailing list tha tI posted to, and one guy there
says he's using win11 now and the problem is the same. ;-)

He posted again. He's still running Eudora on win10 after all.

Post by micky
He is blind and this is a much bigger problem for him than for us. I
will suggest that he only dl mail when he chooses, not on a timer. When
we started mail took much longer to download and we wanted it in
background, but now maybe time doesn't matter. But I don't see how
this could be applied to Excel.

Katrina, the savant of the mailing list, says it can be stopped, at
least in her case, by minimizing Eudora when it's not being used. Maybe
minimizing Excel would do the same thing. With Eudora it seems it
happens when mail is fetche and it writes a flter report. If one has it
set to not display the filter report, it does not steal focus. i don't
know how this would apply to Excel.

Post by micky
Of course it's not that serious for u s but the kind of people who read
this ng won't to fix every little thing, OR they are just curious about
such thing.