# Computer question: Program stealing focus **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2009, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316 "2009-10-19T11:13:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/1 "2009-10-19T11:13:22Z")
I have a problem where whenever my wife prints anything on our networked printer the notification pop-up jerks me out of whatever program I’m working on to tell me her job status. This isn’t too bad aside from when I’m in a game. It’s managed to get me killed more than I care to remember and caused a few crashes if the game isn’t very alt-tab friendly. I did a google search and most sites seemed to recommend Tweak UI (already have it) or a registry edit to do manually what Tweak UI does. I already had those in place so no help there. I went through the settings on the printer (Lexmark X2650 if anyone wants to know, also I’m on Windows XP all the latest updates) and found a setting to turn off the pop-up. Problem solved right? No it still jerks me out of whatever window I’m in I just don’t get to see the status pop-up. Needless to say that doesn’t make me very happy. Short of unhooking the whole damn thing and reconnecting it to her computer does anyone know of a way to stop this behavior? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Piranha\_Brothers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@The\_Piranha\_Brothers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Piranha_Brothers)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/2 "2009-10-19T11:21:26Z")
Now that you’ve changed the settings, reinstall the printer? And when you uninstall it, in the “printers” configuration screen, also click on “file” - “Printer server” - tab “Drivers” and remove the drivers there for the lexmark. (Then reinstall afresh.) ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/3 "2009-10-19T13:49:00Z")
does the monitoring app have an icon in the bottom right corner? If it does right click on that icon, should be a way to close it. does the printer have an ethernet port? If so setting it up as a true network printer vs a shared printer (my suspicion) should avoid this. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/4 "2009-10-19T17:28:05Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > does the monitoring app have an icon in the bottom right corner? > > If it does right click on that icon, should be a way to close it. It doesn’t have a tray icon. As I mentioned it doesn’t even matter if I disable the status pop-up. It’ll happily steal focus even without changing anything on my screen. > [@](#): > > does the printer have an ethernet port? > > If so setting it up as a true network printer vs a shared printer (my suspicion) should avoid this. It is a shared printer and no ethernet port (just USB). It’s not even close to where my router is so stringing wires isn’t really something I’d want to do anyway. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/5 "2009-10-19T20:40:53Z")
Lexmark software is evil. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/6 "2009-10-19T20:50:18Z")
What if you ran your games in a different Windows user account than the print driver? You may have to make the driver run as a certain user instead of the system, and frankly I’m not exactly sure if that’s possible… ---
**Author:** ![pan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@pan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pan1)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/7 "2009-10-19T20:51:00Z")
Move the printer to her PC and share it there. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/8 "2009-10-20T00:13:31Z")
This may be the setting that you already mentioned, but from the Printers and Faxes window, go to **File|Server Properties|Advanced** and uncheck both **Show informational notifications…** boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/9 "2009-10-20T10:04:01Z")
Well nothing has helped though thanks for the suggestions. I got a new case today so while I was busy taking my computer apart I just bit the bullet and moved the printer across. She uses it much more than me anyway. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-question-program-stealing-focus/514316/10 "2009-10-20T13:56:21Z")
GNU/Linux window managers, such as KDE’s KWin, often allow you to configure focus-stealing behaviour for individual windows. I know that KDE is available for Microsoft Windows now, but I’m not sure if it actually replaces Microsoft’s window manager. It might be worth investigating.