Is there a virus or something that steals focus from a program

Viruses and worms
1

I have several users (running XP) that has something stealing focus. They have several programs running and when they are in the middle of inputting information, something steals focus. Nothing flashes on the task bar, no other program comes up. The program they are working is still up.

I have ran several different virus scans, created a new profile & I have reinstalled Xp on one of the systems. (reinstalling solved the problem, but Ido not want to do this for all the other pcs)

Thank you!

jz

2

Strange…
Is there anything running in background that could do this?
Maybe Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com could help us to guess. Which program runs when the focus is stealed?
By the way, which program is losing focus? (I mean, the one you’re inputing information…).

3

I don’t think it’s caused by malware.
I’d bet on some tool, running on background, performing some kind of periodic check. It might be tricky to find out which one is that, however… Process Explorer might be helpful, but it’s hard to say anything specific. Either a new process is launched (at the moment the focus is lost), or maybe it only flashes some CPU usage for a moment… may be hard to spot though (if it’s only quick).

4

This may or may not help. It’s from the ms newsgroup.

"Minimize the window that is stealing focus.

Also, the TweakUI powertoy for WinXP has a setting that may help prevent this:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
It’s in the General section"

5

Hi,

I have noticed that when installing MS updates that it often steals the focus (when moving to the next update) of the app you’re are working in. Do you have any kind of schedule for your MS updates ? There could be one not installing properly and retrying all the time .

just a thought

6

I just post a screenshot of it.

I’ve experienced this too.

7

I have tried Tweakui and and checked the button on the general tab. This doe not work. It does not matter what program the user is in, the program just loses focus. They could have Excel, Outlook, Word or Client Access running and something steals focus.

I am going to try the sysinternals program today and see what i can find.

Thanks for the help and will keep u posted.

Jim Zaino

8

I ran Spy Bot and it detected several items and I had it remove them from the system. So far so good, no reported problems as of yet.