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#1
XP Mode keeps focus when app launched from host taskbar
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the convoluted title, I couldn't think of a simpler way to describe it in one sentence. Here's what's happening...
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) and I use Windows XP Mode every day for my work. (long story, not relevant!) I've found a very strange behaviour, and wondered if anyone else has noticed this. It's tripped me up a few times.
Try the following steps to reproduce the phenomenon:
- Open Windows XP Mode from within Windows 7.
- Position the Windows XP Mode window to ensure the Windows 7 taskbar is still visible.
- Open Notepad within Windows XP Mode.
- Write some random text in the Notepad window.
- Click on an icon on the Windows 7 taskbar to open a pinned program such as Firefox.
IMPORTANT: This should be one click, don't use ALT+TAB, just click once on an icon that's already visible.
ALSO IMPORTANT: It must be a program that's NOT already open. The problem is only evident when Windows 7 launches the program as opposed to switching to it. If you're reading this article in Firefox, using Firefox will only re-focus this window!- At this point the application will open in Windows 7. (Firefox in my example)
- Now, use your keyboard to attempt to interact with the program. This will depend on the app you're using of course, but any keyboard shortcut or keyboard input other than ALT+TAB would be valid here. If you've got the same problem as I have, you will see that the keypresses are received by Notepad within XP Mode, NOT the application you just launched.
This has caught me out so many times. I have two monitors and I usually have Windows XP Mode maximised in my 2nd monitor. I've frequently tried to open Firefox in Windows 7 and then used a keyboard shortcut like CTRL+E to focus the search box or ALT+D to focus the address box, only to find that the keypress has been received by Windows XP Mode rather than Firefox. I then have to delete the text from the other program and click on Firefox with the mouse before repeating the process with the focus in the right place.
Is anyone else seeing the same thing? Is this a bug with Windows XP Mode or Windows 7?