I have a Toshiba laptop, running Windows 10, and I use Chrome for my browser.
From time to time, whatever program I am using at the moment will lose focus for a second or two, then regain focus, just like nothing happened. Since I spend most of my computer time online, it is typically the browser that loses focus, but it has happened with other programs that I use.
Normally, there is little or no problem, but when I am typing something, the first I know about losing focus is the computer beeping at me, as if to say, “Why are you still typing, when it should be obvious that you have lost focus?”
If you use one of the three items in the title and experience this issue, I would like to know about it. If you know what causes this, then I definitely want to know!
OffByOne … happens with the firefox browser as well … so we can rule out chrome being the instigator.
i got win-10 and toshiba-p55 laptop … utilizing a logitech laser-mouse rather than the finger-pad below the keyboard. i tried a small program called “mouse-focus” which was not able to log the “focus-stealing” culprit. only thing i can suggest is for you to click where you want the cursor placed … then drag the mouse outside of the current window … this way, the cursor will not re-position itself somewhere else in the paragraph you are typing. difficult isolating it because it’s so sporadic. :dubious:
i’ve seen posts, OffByOne, where suggestions offered include update/uninstall/install drivers and configuring settings as well as device-manager/control-panel … nada. one worth-while suggestion would be for you to reboot into safe-mode and see if the problem disappears … another possibility would be to kill all processes you don’t need in the task-manager and see if the issue remains. however … at some point, i’d suggest for you to create a system-restore point … so you can always go back, if you did something irretrievable.
in closing … my toshiba came with win-8 … and i upgraded to win-8.1 and finally win-10 … in each version, the issue was apparent … so, i think it’s not a win-10. also upgraded the hardware from 6gb-ram to 16gb-ram.
FYI, I have the same problem with a Win7Pro made-it-myself desktop computer and it really pisses me off when it happens. As above, usually I am only aware of it when I am typing something and the computer beeps with an error beep.
I also notice it, but from a distance, when the screen saver all of a sudden stops and the desktop appears.
I have not really tried tracking this down, although I believe there are programs that do this, because when I have tried something in the past, I didn’t understand the results; so I just put up with it.
I think it is probably something weird in the Win7 (and apparently Win10) code or some interaction between the OS and running programs. I wish there was an option, though, that said, ‘DO NOT STEAL FOCUS’.
Does your laptop have a touchpad? Because the most common reason this would happen is if you were typing and accidentally touched it, thus clicking the mouse on something else. Usually the mouse driver has a setting that will allow you to set a delay between accepting mouse input after typing.
Personally, I find tapping to click to be so annoying that I just always turn that off entirely.
When I upgraded my Mom’s Dell Vostro, she had similar issues, more exacerbated than what you are describing. It turned out there was an incompatibility with some audio software that Dell had bundled in. Maybe try removing/disabling software that Toshiba bundled in.
Yes, this was a big problem for me when I first started using laptops. I eventually solved the issue by buying a separate keyboard and mouse. Of course, I then had to remove the F12 key cap (too effing close to the Backspace key, which I use extensively, being an incompetent typist) and the Caps Lock key cap (too close to the left Shift key).
Something happened last night that may shed some light on this issue.
I was watching a game on the Internet Scrabble Club (isc.ro) when it suddenly lost focus. Moments later, my Android phone made one its noises that I have been unable to interpret. This seemed too close to be just a coincidence, so I began to wonder what apps on my phone are still active, even when they are not in the list of active apps (tap the square at the bottom right on the screen).
That’s when I thought of Facebook. Every time I look at my phone, there are five or six FB-stylized "f"s lined up at the top of the screen, like notifications, but of what exactly? And even though I leave FB running in the browser, it is usually NOT the active tab; yet, I still get certain notifications on my laptop (XYZ has updated his/her status).
When I get home this evening, I will kill FB on my laptop and watch to see if I still experience losing focus. I will report back tomorrow.
When I got home from work Wednesday, I discovered that Microsoft had updated my Windows 10 installation, even though I had left the computer in “hibernate.” That meant that the upgrade had terminated Chrome, so I purposely did not start Facebook once I rebooted.
About an hour or two later, the program I was using lost focus.
I fired up Task Manager to determine if there were any vestiges of Facebook hanging around; there weren’t. However, I did see something that could explain the loss of focus: Mcafee. I was surprised by how many Macafee applications are started when the computer boots up.