IE9 stealing focus from other applications

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Win 7 Pro 32 bit SP1, Office Pro 2010 32 bit, IE9 32 bit

Ever since I installed IE9 it has been stealing the focus back if I go into Outlook.

Now this doesn’t happen every time but is a real nuisance. I will see something in a web page that I want to put in an email. I select and copy it. I go to Outlook and start working. Within 3 seconds IE9 has taken control again. I go back to Outlook and it happens again. I can repeat this many times. The only way I can stop it is to shut the offending IE9 tab.

I never had any troubles with this in IE8. Any suggestions?

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No suggestions sorry, but I see a parallel when using tabs using IE9; if I middle-click a URL to open a new background tab, I now have to click back on the foreground tab (or wait and wait) to continue scrolling through an article. Something I never saw in IE8.

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I have found the same issue. I am running Win7 SP1 64 bit and I have tried installing IE 9 twice (uninstalling it between) and each time it steals focus not only from Outlook 2010, but from other apps as well. I keep having to go back to IE8. I also use Chrome 11.0.696.34 beta-m, and Firefox 4.0 and neither create this issue.

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Hi

Yes, this appears to be a consistent bug in IE9, or perhaps Adobe Flash 10, but as yet Microsoft have not released a fix. Very irritating.

To replicate the bug, copy the URL. Try paste it into a saved draft item in email in Outlook 2010. After about 5 seconds, IE9 jumps to the front of the screen (“steals focus”) confusing Windows … if you click on the email, it doesn’t bring it to the front of the screen because it thinks it already has focus.

It is enough to drive one mad. Especially if you copy and paste URLs to Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 often.

It seems to happen on Win7 amd64 (x64), Intel HD, Flash 10, Office 2010 systems. It is hard to tell whether it is a combination of Flash and IE9 or Intel HD and IE9. Probably Flash and IE9 combo causing it. It doesn’t seem to happen on pages without Flash, does it? If anyone else is experiencing this, please give your config so we can work out common factors.

Office 2010 32bit
Win7 x64
Intel HD
Acronis TIH
Skype 5.3
Daemon Tools
Acrobat Flash 10.3 & Reader X
BOINC 6.12
MS Security Essentials
Intellipoint/type 8
Silverlight 4
Trusteer Rapport
VLC Player 1.1.7

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I don’t need to do anything to replicate the problem except move focus from IE9 to Outlook. I have to be very quick to even attempt to do any work. Yes, Outlook is confused about the focus. The problem only happens occasionally. I don’t know about the relationship to Flash Player yet but it is likely. I’ll do some more checking.

I have a work around to stop IE9 stealing focus but I am unable to express it yet as it happens when I am so irritated that I don’t remember it exactly. It involves clicking back on the IE9 taskbar icon. If I don’t do that it will steal focus for as many times as I wish to open the Outlook window. My video HW is an Intel i7-2600 with an ASUS H67 board. All Win 7 and Office updates are applied. Not quite there with the Intel updates.

Win 7 Pro SP1 32 bit
Acronis TIH 2011
Adobe Reader X (now uninstalled)
Adobe Flash Player 10.3 Active X
Nitro PDF Reader (installed after IE9 problem)
Ashampoo Burning Studio
Avira AntiVir Premium
Google Earth
Intel Control Center
Intel HD graphics driver
Logitech SetPoint
Microsoft Office Professional 2010
Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007
Picasa 3
Primo PDF
Silverlight 4
Win 7 Codecs

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See if this might help”

To stop “stealing focus”, go to control panel, ease of access, ease of access center, make mouse easier to use: Uncheck “Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse”.

Not sure if this is your problem, but could be.

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Ted, definitely not the problem. I don’t like that particular setting being on. It drives me crazy. I also checked just now and it’s not on.
thanks

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As a work around, try minimizing IE before going to Outlook. I know its no consolation, but I don’t experience the problem with IE 9 and Outlook 2007.

Jerry

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Jerry
I will try it and report back.

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The plot thickens, I just had two separate instances of IE9 running (separate windows not tabs) and wanted to copy a URL from one to the other. I did the copy and went to the other window and was pulled back to the original window. The only fix was to shut the offending window. NO EMAIL involvement here.

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Have you tried running IE with addons disabled?

Joe

--Joe

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When I find a page that I can use to demonstrate a reproduceable bug then I will try it without addons. I only have two addons enabled: Adobe Shockwave Flash Object and Office Document Cache Handler. Not sure what this will prove as it didn’t happen with IE8 and now it happens with IE9. Those two addons were the only ones ever enabled under IE8. Life without either would be intolerable. I’ll try it and get back.

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It appears it is all about IE9. I copied a url from an IE9 page today with intent to paste it into Word 2010 and IE9 kept pulling me back. So far I have been pulled back from Outlook 2010, Word 2010 and a second instance of IE9 because I copied a url and went to another application with intent to paste it.

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Thank you everyone for your input. I was wondering if I should install IE9 and now I know I think I will wait for spell. I Like (can use) IE8 for now and I will stick with it until Microsoft works out this problem.
skip

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