Mouse Hover Makes Window Active - Enable

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    Mouse Hover Makes Window Active - Enable

    Mouse Hover Makes Window Active - Enable

    How to Activate a Window by Hovering Over it with the Mouse Pointer
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    Designer Media Ltd


    How to Activate a Window by Hovering Over it with the Mouse Pointer

       Information
    This will allow you to Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse pointer for a second to make it easier to switch between open windows.


    hello all.
    I've been reading this great forum passively for a short while now, its quite the wonderful resource.
    what i could not find, though, was information on how to focus on windows by simply hovering over them with the mouse.

    Back in XP, you could enable this with Tweak UI, which called it X-mouse.
    It was great, i didn't have to click on a window to work in it.
    but how to enable this in 7?



    OPTION #1
    As this article points out, you can switch windows by hovering if you enable it through:
    Control Panel> Ease of Access> Change How Your Mouse Works
    scroll down, check box "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse"
    this method raises windows to the front when you hover over them.
    Mouse Hover Makes Window Active - Enable-eac.jpg
    OPTION #2
    For a true X-mouse experience, you could use this third party software TXMouse:
    True X-Mouse Gizmo for Windows
    if you are familiar with Linux x-mouse behaviour, you might appreciate its other functions.




    OPTION #3
    If you don't need those extra functions, you can make a couple swift changes in the registry and achieve the same effect:
    [Thanks to original commenter unpaidbill for this particular option]
    Step #1:
    Open regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
    Edit UserPreferenceMask value to be 9F 3E 07 80 12 00 00 00
    [You should only have to modify the first pair]
    NOTE: Default value is 98 12 07 80 12 00 00 00.

    Step #2:
    Also in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
    Edit ActiveWndTrkTimeout, change 'Base' to Decimal and put in 150 as the 'Value Data'
    NOTE: Default value is 500.

    [this value is time in milliseconds that it takes for the focus to change.
    to avoid some issues with the taskbar I recommended using a value like 150 or so,
    but if you'd like to have a different delay before the window loses focus, set it to whatever you like.]

    Step #3:
    Log off and log back in
       Information
    (Added by John Galt)

    Here is the registry key to do that if you don't want to edit the registry yourself. Hover window select.reg

    Here is the registry key to restore the default values. Default Windows hover.reg



    This results in windows being active (but not being raised) when you hover over them.









  1. Posts : 221
    7 Pro Build 7600.16385x64 [2.0 WEI]
       #1

    Option #1 seems the simplest, why would people even bother with Option #3?

    Thanks for the tutorial, just tried it out and now I know what you mean about "hovering makes window active".
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2
    Win Seven OBV
       #2

    option 3 rocks

    great job
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 21
    Win7x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    andythecurefan said:
    Option #1 seems the simplest, why would people even bother with Option #3?
    so that you can type and scroll in a window that is not in the foreground.
    option 1 brings the windows forward, while option 3 does not.
    its convenient that way, but you have to be aware of where your mouse is on the screen.


    skzap said:
    option 3 rocks

    great job
    thanks skzap.
    I wanted to make a .reg file so that you didn't have to edit the registry if you didn't want to, but i don't know how lol.

    can anyone help me to that end?
    then there can be an Undo .reg file as well

    [which reminds me, I didn't make a backup of those registry values lol. can someone provide the original values?]
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 4,282
    Windows 7 Ultimate Vista Ultimate x64
       #4

    Here you go, they are both in Reg files. By the way I really like option 3, it now works just how I always thought it should, good job.

    Hover window select.reg

    Default Windows hover.reg

    I edited the files to include only the changes from gabeforprez's initial post, and they are exactly as he mentions.

    The default restores the default values to those 2 keys as they normally appear in Windows, and the Hover changes the values of those two keys only to the values suggested by gabe. -johnlgalt
    Last edited by johngalt; 27 Nov 2009 at 18:36.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2
    Win Seven OBV
       #5

    in regedit you have an export option, then open the created file with notepad and remove the useless lines.

    I don't have the original either.

    The delay time is in millisec? I need to change it, 0 millisecs causes some minor annoyances here
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 21
    Win7x64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Mr GRiM said:
    Here you go, they are both in Reg files. By the way I really like option 3, it now works just how I always thought it should, good job.

    Attachment 10005

    Attachment 10006

    Yes! Exactly!
    thank you a bunch Mr GRiM!
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 21
    Win7x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    skzap said:
    The delay time is in millisec? I need to change it, 0 millisecs causes some minor annoyances here
    actually a slight delay would be nice.
    knowing that the option is there is nice too.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 381
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | Windows XP Pro x86 | Windows Vista Ultimate x86
       #8

    Step #2:
    Also in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
    Edit ActiveWndTrkTimeout, change 'Base' to Decimal and put in 0 as the 'Value Data'
    When I change the Base to Decimal, it reverts back to hex when I close the window out. I tried the .reg file that grim has provided but it also did not work, yes I did log off.

    Edit: Is it supposed to deselect the last open window and when you move the cursor it goes back? I was hoping it would open the window you hover over. Also, why did my wallpaper disappear when I logged back in?

    Edit 2: Oohhh I understand now. Sorry, my head wasn't working.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 4,282
    Windows 7 Ultimate Vista Ultimate x64
       #9

    Nikolay said:
    When I change the Base to Decimal, it reverts back to hex when I close the window out. I tried the .reg file that grim has provided but it also did not work, yes I did log off.

    Yeah my value was already set to 0 for some reason, but as far as it changing back, that's what it is meant to do, you are just changing it to decimal to set the value. What was your original value for the delay gabeforprez?
      My Computer


 
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