Windows of applications fail to come 'to front'.

Question

I am running Windows 7, 64 bit, and for the longest time, I have has this problem where windows of my various applications will repeatedly fail to come 'to the front' when I click on them.

Needless to say this is very, very annoying. At first I thought it was a Chrome issue, but it happens to all my applications.

I have no idea why/how this is occurring. Furthermore, this seems to start occurring, after sometime after a reset. For example, if I reset my laptop, the issue goes away, but will return within 5-10 minutes or so.

What can possibly be causing this, and how can I stop it?

Solution

You can try this

run cmd

regedit

navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

right click ForegroundLockTimeout > modify

change value to 0, and base to decimal.

This might affect ForegroundFlashCount

Comments

[Karan]

Does this happen in Safe Mode too? Try disabling all programs that load at startup using msconfig and see if the behaviour persists (in normal mode that is). If it doesn't, you'll have to re-enable programs one by one to pinpoint the culprit.

[Spacey]

@Karan Ok, I will try to do this.

[Psycogeek]

One of the updates of windows 7 seems to have changed this behaviour some, is the system updated? Do you use the "Desktop Show" button? Test by avoiding using desktop show after a booting, and see if it helps. Which display style are you useing (aero or classic)?

[Spacey]

@Psycogeek Thanks for your comment - how can I check if its aero/classic? Also, is that Desktop Show Button that 4 square grid thing? How do I check about that too?...

[Psycogeek]

"Show Desktop" in win7 is a button in the notification area of the taskbar (usually bottom right) It minimises all windows. If you did not know about it , then it is unlikely that you were using it. Some user pointed out that it caused the problem, I tested using it once, and it seemed to make the problem worse and more often. Win7 Defaults to areo desktop. The location > Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Personalization < there is where the controls are, if you never looked, chances are good that it is using the areo. So what about the updates? had you done them?