Little Thing

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Little Thing

Bill,

The computer with Win95 did not have a focus problem and was working fine. When I changed an app for Win98 I tested it on the Win95 machine that was using the same app to check for any problems the change would create, but there were none.

Jerry

[CALocklin]

RE: Little Thing

OK, it's not pertinent to the original issue but here's a hint about naming menus:

Never use "Main Menu". Instead, use "Menu_main".

Two reasons: (1) Using the underscore rather than a space makes it clearer in code and may (slight possibility) save you some trouble later, (2) start all menus with "Menu" so they all appear together and you don't 'lose' them.

EX:
Menu_main
Menu_maintenance
Menu_parts
Menu_somethingorother
Menu_whatever

(Sounds like an item for the new Tips sight!)

[martinwcole]

RE: Little Thing

a fix for this was posted a few months ago.
put sys_send_keys("{esc}") at the onintialize event for the beginning form

[whanigsberg]

RE: Little Thing

Charles,

"Hope this makes sense"

One thing it clarifies is why the problem is present on one of my machines and not on the other. This was quite a piece of detective work.

Thanks for your efforts,
Bill

[CharlesK]

RE: Little Thing

I've done some more digging and here's what I've found:

Microsoft introduced this new behavior to prevent an application (like ICQ, or a fax program or a virus) that is not explicitly launched by the user from becoming the active window. If you are typing in Word and ICQ pops up, you end up typing in ICQ, not in Word.

The application that launches then flashes its taskbar icon (3 times by default) indicating this window was denied the privilege to be displayed as foreground window.

This new security feature cannot be disabled from the Windows interface. That is why TweakUI (or editing the registry) is necessary.

There is only one registry setting that turns this on or off. It was originally thought that this worked on Windows 2000 or ME, but it obviously works for Win98se.

All you have to do is modify the ForegroundLockTimeout to enable/disable this new feature. Notice that this key already exists in Win98se/ME/2k. It defaults to PREVENT focus capture.

To ALLOW applications to steal the focus:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop
ForegroundLockTimeout: 00 00 00 00

To PREVENT applications from stealing the focus (use appropriate value based on your Windows version):

For Win98se:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop
ForegroundLockTimeout: 98 3A 00 00

For Win2k:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop
ForegroundLockTimeout: 20 FE 00 00

I don't know the value for WinME.
98 3A 00 00 is 15000 decimal
20 FE 00 00 is 20000 decimal

There is a second key that sets how many times the icon flashes when the app has been prevented from stealing the focus:
ForegroundFlashCount: 0x 00 00 00

In this key, x is the number of times the icon flashes. If x=0, it flashes until the icon is clicked.

My recommendation: Run Regedit and locate the ForegroundLockTimeout key. Export this key and name the reg file Prevent.reg. Now, change this key to 00 00 00 00. Export this key and name it Allow.reg. Now, just double-click Allow.reg to allow focus capture, or double-click Prevent.reg to prevent focus capture.

Hope this makes sense!

Charles

[CharlesK]

RE: Little Thing

Like this?

I see. The message compose window is like Notepad. The HTML doesn't show up until the message is posted.

Thank you!!!

[CharlesK]

RE: Little Thing

I can understand that! Here's what John Woram, who has written a fantastic book on the Windows Registry, has sto say about this setting:

"If you clear the "Prevent Applications..." box, the window for a background application (say, an incoming fax, etc.) might pop up while you're working on something else. If the box is checked, then the background application window's title bar and/or taskbar icon will simply blink instead, and you might not see if if the app you're working on occupies the full screen. The two radio buttons determine
the behavior of the blink.

John"

I've asked him what does this setting change in the registry. No answer yet.

His explaination explains exactly the behavior I see. From what I can tell, Alpha5 launches, then it launches A5Halt.

Now, if Windows blocks one application from stealing the focus, then when Alpha5 tries to get the focus back from A5Halt, Windows blocks this attempt but flashes the taskbar icon instead.

But, if Windows allows an application to steal the focus, then Alpha5 can get the focus back from A5Halt.

I was wondering what happens if A5Halt.exe is renamed to, say, A5Halt.bxe, so I tried it. Guess what? It works! Alpha5 always has focus when it starts regardless of the Prevent Stealing setting. I do NOT know what side effects this causes, though. (A5Halt.exe is located in the folder where Alpha5 was installed.)

I am anxiously waiting John's response.

Charles

[Stan Mathews]

RE: Little Thing


Like this , darn end quotes!

[Stan Mathews]

RE: Little Thing


Like this

[whanigsberg]

RE: Little Thing

Jerry,

I don't know. Have to look. It is part of a logon and setup routine so there is lots of stuff happening there.

However, my W95 machine does not have the focus problem so I do not need the code. If I add the code and open the application on this machine I get this problem.

So this prompts me to wonder whether your W95 machine presents the focus issue. If so, we're back to the setup question. Why do some machines have it and others not and can we devise a solution which works cleanly for both classes of machine.

Bill

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Little Thing

Bill,
I use the ESC key idea on Win 95 without a problem. But my first opening form has enter and change restricted since it is only a menu screen. Do you have any OnKey events for the opening form?

Jerry

[whanigsberg]

RE: Little Thing

Hi Jay,

I discovered a problem with this solution which you should know about.

It works in W98 on the two machines in my office which have the focus problem.

My W95 machine does not have the focus problem. However, the code throws the opening form into change mode.

So I removed the code because of the variability of its consequences.

I haven't tried it on my ME machine.

Bill

[whanigsberg]

RE: Little Thing

Hi again, Charles,

Thanks very much for your efforts.

My reason for wondering whether we can cut Tweak_ui out of the process is that I am at an educational institution with between 3 and 4k machines. Our tech support people favor standard setups so when a machine fails or is replaced the setup can be ghosted on to it from the network. For example, students always find ways to screw up lab machines. The techs don't debug; they just rebuild--simultaneously--as many machines as they need to. So it would be nice to know the settings.

Of course, we might use tweak_ui on the template machines but I wonder whether settings created with it would transfer cleanly to destination machines which did not have it....

I love windows.

Bill

[Jay Talbott]

RE: Little Thing

HI,

All I have done is to put this on the first form that loads in the on_init:

sys_send_keys("{ESC}")

I know how some people feel about using sys_send_keys, but as my college friend used to say, "It's crude but effective". I don't think he was referring to me, but now that I think about it, I heard him say it alot when I was around. Hmmm.?

Jay Talbott

[Ken L Herrold]

RE: Little Thing

To All:

Thanks Again - I've used TweakUI ever since I found it on the first machine I built. I still [quickly] haven't found the 'Focus' thing, but will certainly look into it. I probably should have posted that a sys_send_keys - ESC has worked in the meantime. Like Tom Cone I also have an init that places focus on one of my menu selections.

Jean Bedard - Yes I have a startup form. Real Original name too, 'Main Menu' [pretty creative eh?]

POS with barcode. No it doesn't have it. I did an app in A4 for a guy in St.Louis but it only processed the reading of codes, didn't generate them.

Thanks again to all

Ken the Newbie.