IE8 question - keeping IE from overtaking active app

Sorry if this is Google-able. I’ve been searching for an answer, but don’t know which terms to use. I’ve recently downloaded IE8. I often will search for something on the internet, or refresh a page or whatever, but then switch to another application while the internet is doing its thing. (For example, I might refresh an SDMB thread, but then switch to Outlook to check my email.) With IE6 the internet page would update, but not overtake the current active window. With IE8, it will become the active window when it’s done doing its thing. I don’t want that. How do I make it stop? IOW I always want the active window to stay the active window and never be overtaken by IE8 unless I manually make the switch. Does that make sense?

Happens to me with both IE6 and IE7

This is referred to as “taking focus” or “stealing focus”. I tried to do a Google search, but there are many solutions. One of them is to use TweakUI from Microsoft.

For Vista you need to make the change in the registry. You can paste this code into a Notepad text file, save it as “focus.reg” and double-click on it to make the change. Restart the computer for it to take effect.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"ForegroundLockTimeout"=dword:00000000

That’s it. Perfect. Thank you, Iggins.