application windows keep losing focus

[zebakimmel]

Hello,

I am using an almost brand-new IBM ThinkPad with WinXP Pro. I've
installed almost no software beyond that which was pre-installed:
Office, Firefox, and some anti-virus software. I almost never use IE,
so as to avoid viruses.

On my computer, the frontmost window loses focus about every 20
seconds. It is, as you can imagine, driving me up the wall. No other
application comes to the front -- but the frontmost window loses focus
and I find myself typing into thin air. This happens whether or not I
am actually doing anything on the computer.

I've installed Tweak UI and set "prevent applications from stealing
focus", and run a VB script that supposedly modifies the registry to
keep focus maintained. I've also turned off "advanced text services" in
the "Regional and Language Options" control panel, as per a Microsoft
tech report I found. None of these actions has had the slightest
effect.

Everything else on the computer works fine and I am encountering no
other odd behavior.

Does anyone have a suggestion how I can find and kill whatever program
is stealing focus? Thank you.

--Zeb

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

I am using an almost brand-new IBM ThinkPad with WinXP Pro. I've
installed almost no software beyond that which was pre-installed:
Office, Firefox, and some anti-virus software. I almost never use IE,
so as to avoid viruses.

Anyway, scan your system for possible malware (viruses, spyware).

On my computer, the frontmost window loses focus about every 20
seconds. It is, as you can imagine, driving me up the wall. No other
application comes to the front -- but the frontmost window loses focus
and I find myself typing into thin air. This happens whether or not I
am actually doing anything on the computer.

This is caused by poor software running in the background, most likely.
Otherwise, you'd notice what window gets the focus instead. See if this
article helps:

"How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in
Windows XP" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560/en-us

 

[Scott]

Not sure if yours is same problem, but I had received some malware
that installed and would attempt to send info to the internet. It
would start and stop stealing focus as you described. If you open task
manager and watch which program is starting/stopping you may be able
to troubleshoot from there.

 

[Rock]

Hello,

I am using an almost brand-new IBM ThinkPad with WinXP Pro. I've
installed almost no software beyond that which was pre-installed:
Office, Firefox, and some anti-virus software. I almost never use IE,
so as to avoid viruses.

On my computer, the frontmost window loses focus about every 20
seconds. It is, as you can imagine, driving me up the wall. No other
application comes to the front -- but the frontmost window loses focus
and I find myself typing into thin air. This happens whether or not I
am actually doing anything on the computer.

I've installed Tweak UI and set "prevent applications from stealing
focus", and run a VB script that supposedly modifies the registry to
keep focus maintained. I've also turned off "advanced text services" in
the "Regional and Language Options" control panel, as per a Microsoft
tech report I found. None of these actions has had the slightest
effect.

Everything else on the computer works fine and I am encountering no
other odd behavior.

Does anyone have a suggestion how I can find and kill whatever program
is stealing focus? Thank you.

--Zeb

Download process explorer from system internals:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html

Use that to monitor what is running and see what app is taking the
focus. Another option is clean boot troubleshooting:

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

 

[zebakimmel]

Thanks for all the helpful replies.

I have tried watching for a program to increase its CPU usage in the
Windows Task Manager when the window loses focus, but haven't seen
anything special. It might flash by too quickly for me to spot.

I have scanned the hard drive and found no virus or malware.

Using msconfig is not feasible because there are fifty to a hundred
individual startup programs provided as defaults on this Lenovo machine
-- I would have to painstakingly deactivate them one at a time. I
suppose I could use a binary search algorithm but it would still be
very very painful.

What I would like to do is take a snapshot of the processes at the time
the frontmost window loses focus. So I need a "process history". I
downloaded Process Explorer but it doesn't seem to keep a history. Does
anyone have a suggestion how to do this?

Thanks!

 

[zebakimmel]

Ah ha....I think I found it. Whenever the frontmost window loses focus,
a process called "irftp.exe" appears in the process window, stays there
for about ten seconds, then disappears. If I kill the irftp.exe
process, it just comes back (and the frontmost window defocuses). So
now I have to figure out how to disable irftp.exe.

 

[zebakimmel]

I think my laptop is being occasionally triggered by an external IR
signal from another laptop or PDA on my desk. Whenever this happens,
irftp.exe starts up silently, steals focus, then exits silently. So I
have to find a way to kill irftp.exe permanently. Maybe using
msconfig...

 

[Steve N.]

I think my laptop is being occasionally triggered by an external IR
signal from another laptop or PDA on my desk. Whenever this happens,
irftp.exe starts up silently, steals focus, then exits silently. So I
have to find a way to kill irftp.exe permanently. Maybe using
msconfig...

Good detective work.
You can disable it in Computer Management, Services. You could also
disable the IR adaptor in Device Management.

Steve

 

[zebakimmel]

I disabled irftp.exe in msconfig and that solved the problem. Thanks
for everyone's help!

 

[janstetka]

I know this thread is long since resolved but you were looking for a process history. Take a look at process-history.co.uk

Cheers