Idea
#400: Prevent applications from stealing focus
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1033
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Written by smenjas the 29 Feb 08 at 01:34.
Category: Look and Feel.
Related to:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
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Description
I'm constantly frustrated by applications stealing my focus. There should be some way for me to ensure that when I begin typing somewhere, an overzealous application will never pop up in front of what I'm working on.
If an application needs my attention, it's task bar button should simply pulse so I can turn my attention to it when I'm ready. Pidgin does this; why not everything else?
On Mac OS X, Growl provides a system-wide way to notify the user that something has happened without getting in the way. I'd very much like to see Ubuntu adopt something like that.
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Comments
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Estesark wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 01:41
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I realise this isn't quite what you were looking for, but there is already a "no focus" option in Compiz Fusion. You can access it through CompizConfig Settings Manager > Window Management > Window Rules.
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lcampagn wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:06
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Focus stealing prevention is built into KDE!
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smenjas wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 05:18
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Estesark: I use Compiz on my home computer, and although I have that feature turned on I still find that applications steal my focus. Maybe I'm not doing it right.
Unfortunately that's not always an option. At work I cannot enable Compiz, I'm guessing because of video card issues.
This should be standard on all window managers. Otherwise they're not really managing my windows, they're letting my windows manage me!
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cmr wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 05:22
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this is a major annoyance, especially for those of us who prefer sloppy focus. things are certainly far better on linux systems in general than on other deskops, but i still deal with unwanted focus ambushes on a daily basis.
in my opinion, no window should have keyboard focus unless 1) i manually move the mouse pointer into it or 2) it is the only window visible.
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Miquelets wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 15:37
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Icewm is configurable
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kilps wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 16:21
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I was going to post this idea ... it is especially applicable with slow starting applications; and I have found myself typing a password into another application without realising it simply because focus is transferred but the window is not yet showing itself...
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wolfwitch wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 17:38
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This is a big problem for me too- very annoying. Also- since Compiz doesn't work on my laptop (damn you ATI!), disabling it as-such is not an option.
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salutis wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 19:12
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Perfect idea!
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rawsausage wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 22:46
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This is also a security issue. Think of typing a password while looking down to the keyboard. Whoops you wrote it into some idiotic javascript popup window and sent to millions of people.
Software stealing focus should be handled as critical security vulnerabilities. Always.
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tremby wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 01:01
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i run two X displays. i generally don't have a problem with focus stealing on any one of the two, but an application on :0 finishing loading frequently steals focus from my terminal on :0.1, which is extremely irritating.
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wolfier wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 03:39
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@rawsausage:
Cannot agree more!! Focus-stealing software is a critical security threat - whenever it's seen, fixing it should take the highEST priority over any non-critical-security bugfixes.
If I could vote only ONE idea up multiple times, this will get 9999 votes.
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arbitrix wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 07:34
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Focus stealing is a big part of what makes Windows such a torture. It also is a security risk as per rawsausage above. Such a bug does not belong in Ubuntu.
This is also an issue with Windows system tray popups. Torture case:
1) You are reading a big PDF on-screen
2) you have your cursor in the bottom right corner
so you can click and scroll down whilst reading
3) you click
4) a GMail notification has popped under (and STOLEN
FOCUS)
5) Firefox pops up with the GMail I just accidentally
clicked on
6) concentration is broken, world peace is never achieved.
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manish wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 13:00
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My Experience: I was chatting with my friend in GMail inbuilt chat feature as I had not logged in the gmail account thought Pidgin.
I was running pidgin and logged in to Yahoo. While typing in gmail chat , suddenly a pidgin chat window opens up and i typed in it and hit enter. I type quite fast and before I could get that I had typed in pidgin and hit enter, its all done. Now I had to tell him what had happened.
Quite damn irritating.
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fpgforce wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 13:20
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I agree with that, it's especially true in kopete, this app is driving me crazy
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ketilwaa wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 15:33
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I think windows shouldn't steal focus, but still be able to noitfy you in some obvious yet non-obtrusive way. Like with Pidgin, I'd like to have the window pop up on a new message, but not gaining full focus, so I can see it, but still the window I'm writing in is still active. This might be tricky due to window sizes, but there is probably a good way to implement this.
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fyo wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 21:31
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It's somewhat amusing that a good portion of the GNOME-specific "ideas" are already implemented in KDE.
Yes, focus-stealing is configurable in KDE.
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ethana2 wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 06:59
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When I'm installing updates while chatting in pidgin, that window needs to leave me alone _by default_. Flash in the window list, I'll get to it when I get to it.
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cheiron wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 07:28
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As ethana2 said, the Update Manager is particularly guilty of this, and seems to steal focus three or four times during a single round of updating (!).
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Eldmannen wrote on the 19 Mar 08 at 02:40
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Update Manager loves to steal focus.
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Endolith wrote on the 27 May 08 at 15:38
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Please please please fix this. Windows should NEVER steal focus. Just pop up the window in the background and make it blink in the taskbar.
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uaneme wrote on the 24 Jul 08 at 02:40
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+1000
Glad it never happened to me YET but imagine:
you are typing your login and password and something like Pidgin grabs focus.. A co-worker with a sence of humor could just look over your shoulder and wait for that moment to msg you and steal your password. ;-) yes funny, but not funny with serious data.
Or ... Creditcard numbers..
Or when your boss msg you just when you tell a friend that you hate the man.
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Abra_Kadabra wrote on the 27 Aug 08 at 17:44
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+100000000
Good Idea!
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Ubuntuforums.org thread #600050
