# Windows windows

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-windows/390263>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 31, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-windows/390263 "2007-01-31T14:05:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-windows/390263/1 "2007-01-31T14:05:30Z")

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At home I use a Mac PowerBook G4. The only time I’m interrupted by a window I’m not in is when the other window needs attention. (‘Excuse me, iTunes needs your attention.’) At work I use a Dell laptop running Win2K. I frequently have several windows open (Extra for the mainframe, Outlook, a database search application, one to three Internet browsers, a database folder, Excel, Word, maybe a mail or two). Typically I’ll go somplace on the Internet, and then go to one of the other windows – Extra, for example. But Extra won’t come up while the browser is loading. Or Extra or Outlook or whatever will come up and I’ll start typing, only for the browser window to pop up and prevent me from doing what I want to do until I click back to the other window.

Is this annoying ‘feature’ a Windows thing? Or is it just that I have fewer windows open (typically two browsers and Mail) on my Mac, and my Mac is much faster than my work PC?

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**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-windows/390263/2 "2007-01-31T18:07:54Z")

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No matter how many windows/applications you have open in Mac OsX, if an appliacation that is not “in front” needs attention, its icon in the dock will start to jump to get your attention, but its window will not force itself to the front until you click on that icon to bring the application to the front, or bring it to the front in other ways.

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**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:** [February 1, 2007, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-windows/390263/3 "2007-02-01T00:10:55Z")

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Install [TweakUI](http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp), a free Microsoft control panel applet. Then go to the **General** tab and select **Prevent applications from stealing focus**.

This isn’t perfect but it works most of the time.