What happened to focus policies?

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Guest

On the path from Windows 3.11 to Windows 2000, Microsoft got smart about a
bunch of user interface concepts. Particularly focus.

I've found Windows XP focus policies to be as bad as, if not worse than,
Windows 3.11. I'm guessing new blood threw out old lessons.

I live in perpetual fear of the Automatic Updates wants to restart your
computer dialog, which was apparently developed by a sadist:

I can type whole sentences in the time it takes to go from stealing focus to
actually displaying the window, and during that time *any* instance of the
'n', <space> or <enter> key will be accepted as confirmation that I wish to
restart &Now. On the other hand, I have to press Alt-L for &Later, which has
to be deliberate. And there is no option for "I don't need the updates to
take effect, so stop asking me to reboot and just leave the nice little
reminder icon in the task tray".

Is there some way I can retake control of focus on my XP machine? It seems
we are back to every new window gets focus when it opens, although most of
them surrender it shortly afterwards (e.g. pop-unders and pop-ups from IE
still get focus briefly).

And with Windows XP, focus typically gets transferred *well* become the
window has finished rendering. There *must* be an option or powertoy
somewhere that will stop focus being transferred until a windows is at the
very least fully rendered, if not longer (a nice HRT of 200ms would be
appreciated -- I can type at least 5-20 words in that time)
 
Quietbrit said:
On the path from Windows 3.11 to Windows 2000, Microsoft got smart
about a bunch of user interface concepts. Particularly focus.

I've found Windows XP focus policies to be as bad as, if not worse
than, Windows 3.11. I'm guessing new blood threw out old lessons.

I live in perpetual fear of the Automatic Updates wants to restart
your computer dialog, which was apparently developed by a sadist:

I can type whole sentences in the time it takes to go from stealing
focus to actually displaying the window, and during that time *any*
instance of the 'n', <space> or <enter> key will be accepted as
confirmation that I wish to restart &Now. On the other hand, I
have to press Alt-L for &Later, which has to be deliberate. And
there is no option for "I don't need the updates to take effect, so
stop asking me to reboot and just leave the nice little reminder
icon in the task tray".

Is there some way I can retake control of focus on my XP machine?
It seems we are back to every new window gets focus when it opens,
although most of them surrender it shortly afterwards (e.g.
pop-unders and pop-ups from IE still get focus briefly).

And with Windows XP, focus typically gets transferred *well* become
the window has finished rendering. There *must* be an option or
powertoy somewhere that will stop focus being transferred until a
windows is at the very least fully rendered, if not longer (a nice
HRT of 200ms would be appreciated -- I can type at least 5-20 words
in that time)
Click to expand...

Not this again..
 
'Shenan Stanley' wrote:
| Not this again..
_____

I thought the original post was a complaint about Microsoft not focusing on
its core business for the first two paragraphs B^)

Phil Weldon

| Quietbrit wrote:
| > On the path from Windows 3.11 to Windows 2000, Microsoft got smart
| > about a bunch of user interface concepts. Particularly focus.
| >
| > I've found Windows XP focus policies to be as bad as, if not worse
| > than, Windows 3.11. I'm guessing new blood threw out old lessons.
| >
| > I live in perpetual fear of the Automatic Updates wants to restart
| > your computer dialog, which was apparently developed by a sadist:
| >
| > I can type whole sentences in the time it takes to go from stealing
| > focus to actually displaying the window, and during that time *any*
| > instance of the 'n', <space> or <enter> key will be accepted as
| > confirmation that I wish to restart &Now. On the other hand, I
| > have to press Alt-L for &Later, which has to be deliberate. And
| > there is no option for "I don't need the updates to take effect, so
| > stop asking me to reboot and just leave the nice little reminder
| > icon in the task tray".
| >
| > Is there some way I can retake control of focus on my XP machine?
| > It seems we are back to every new window gets focus when it opens,
| > although most of them surrender it shortly afterwards (e.g.
| > pop-unders and pop-ups from IE still get focus briefly).
| >
| > And with Windows XP, focus typically gets transferred *well* become
| > the window has finished rendering. There *must* be an option or
| > powertoy somewhere that will stop focus being transferred until a
| > windows is at the very least fully rendered, if not longer (a nice
| > HRT of 200ms would be appreciated -- I can type at least 5-20 words
| > in that time)
|
| Not this again..
|
| --
| Shenan Stanley
| MS-MVP
| --
| How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
|
|
|
 
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