How to prevent Adobe software stealing focus in Windows 10? - LOCKED

[umpfgrmbl]

Every Adobe app (InDesign, Photoshop...) is stealing the focus from other application a several times. This behaviour is annoying as well as useless. How to stop this?

[jaimer8372581]

If they do this on purpose then the more we should complain and let Adobe know that THEIR CUSTOMERS are not happy with this, there's no good reason to keep this behavior, and if we make enough noise maybe they'll fix it.

[fpo]

Yeah as a developer I understand the Win32 API calls they use,  but I really don't know WHY they do//  especially call it 5 or 6 times . it is SO FNkC ANNOYING and unnecessary.  I found this very thread out of frustration.

[matthewh26]

This issue has been bugging me for a long time, so I finally decided to do a search and find a solution.  This is the first thread I came across, and it appears 2 years after the original post, the focus stealing is still an issue.

Even with a new Kaby Lake i7 7700, 16gb RAM and Creative Cloud apps installed on an SSD drive, PS still takes time to load while constantly stealing focus.  While yes, it's not a huge amount of time, it is still frustrating nonetheless.

Glad to see it's not only me.

[Steve Werner]

If you read through the thread you'll see that Adobe engineers are aware of the issue and are working on it

[Eduard_Shcherbanev]

The engineers are ostensibly working on it. There is unfortunately no evidence of it.

[Steve Werner]

You don't have a very good understanding of the way software engineering works. When a problem is determined to occur, it takes extensive testing to make sure that a "fix" doesn't adversely affect other parts of the software. This is particularly difficult when you have very large software (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) which operate on a large variety of hardware and which interact with a large variety of third party software. You'll just have to wait, I'm afraid.

[BobLevine]

And in the meantime, just launch them and leave them open.

[Eduard_Shcherbanev]

Not every PC or laptop allows to keep Lightroom and Photoshop open simultaneously. Even 8 Gb of RAM with SSD lead to the "Out of memory" exception periodically.

[umpfgrmbl]

I am not sure why you are so interested in soothing down the masses. This is not the psychiatrist's couch. As you can see, the problem is not odd nor abysmal - it is real. So if you like to support us bringing the problem up to Adobe's Dev Team, you are welcome. If you have got a solution for the problem, you will find a bunch of new friends. But if you just like to bow to Adobe arrogance, I am afraid you are wasting your time. I am working with Adobe's products since InDesign 1.0 and love it for all the smart tools. But what has to be criticized has to be criticized. Only that pushes things forward.

[Steve Werner]

We don't have any way to bring the issue up. We are users like you. I don't even work on Windows 10. I just trying to let you know how things usually work.

Your observations should be directed to the team of each application using the link below. That is read by the development teams. The more they hear it, the higher it will probably be placed on their very large list of bugs:

Feature Requests/Bug Reports

[-ChronoWolf-]

To all those people who love to keep repeating: "Just leave it alone and let it open" - what kind of slow-paced, Sunday driver, bunny rabbit meadow of a workplace do you work at where every time someone opens up a program you have all the time in the world to put your mouse away, pencils down, and take a stroll down to the lake?

...but it all seriousness. It's actually rather obtuse to suggest ignoring the issue. It would be like a doctor telling a patient who has a sore leg: "Walk more on the other leg".

Problem 1: Regardless of how fast computers are getting, every new version of Photoshop almost doubles it's load time. Perhaps Adobe can look into reducing the amount of time spent "Initially initializing the initialization initializers".

Problem 2: Knowing that problem 1 won't be resolved any time soon, in order to keep a creative flow many designers are happy to open a program and do other tasks while it loads. This could be (but not limited to): responding to emails, searching for the source materials they need for the pending Photoshop task, browsing online content, etc. By repeatedly stealing focus, you are preventing anybody from doing productive work on the computer while the software loads.

Yes these are issues. No, we don't want to accept a "solution" that means turning the other cheek. I'm glad Adobe is aware of the issue (and is apparently working on it), but don't devalue our concerns with such obtuse responses.

[BobLevine]

As already pointed out, it will get fixed when it gets fixed.

Complaining about 10 seconds of your life being stolen from you is not going to change anything or get the problem fixed any faster. Is it a PITA when you launch the applications? Yes. Launch the programs and leave them open. That will prevent the horrible inconvenience you’re experiencing.

Oh, and I feel sorry for anyone with a machine so slow that they can answer an email in the time that ANY application is launching.

[-ChronoWolf-]

BobLevine  wrote

As already pointed out, it will get fixed when it gets fixed.

Well aware of this, thanks Bob. As clearly indicated in the last paragraph of my post.

BobLevine  wrote

Complaining about 10 seconds of your life being stolen from you is not going to change anything or get the problem fixed any faster.

Not the point here... if it were not for folks like me adding their $0.02 to the discussion, and providing an insight into their frustrations, these issues would rarely be brought to light. Granted: my original post had it's fair share of light-hearted humor based hyperbole, your arrogance here is actually quite appalling. I know you don't work for Adobe, but being an "MVP" you should really understand where we are coming from and learn how to add to this discussions constructively.

BobLevine  wrote

Oh, and I feel sorry for anyone with a machine so slow that they can answer an email in the time that ANY application is launching.

Really? Once again, what an appalling and juvenile thing to say. And for your information: I'm running and 8 core, 16-thread i7 with 64GB of RAM and an M.2 PCIe SSD (which transfers data at over 3.6GB/sec). And yes, every new version of Photoshop takes longer and longer to load. Try again Bob.

[BobLevine]

You’re welcome.

[-ChronoWolf-]

Any time.

[moxylady]

Just to add, Photoshop continues to steal focus while I work in other programs (i.e. not just on launching the program). Some details that may be helpful:

OS: OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

Photoshop: CC2015.1.2 Release, v20160113.r.355 x64

Kindly remove this non-native "feature".

[Mike Witherell]

In Windows 10, if you right-click an icon; then right-click to bring up the Properties dialog box, you can set the software to Run: Minimized. I find that cuts down on the number of interruptions. Photoshop doesn't seem to cooperate, however.

[matthewh26]

That's a fantastic suggestion, thank you.

[stevelogan19075]

Interesting that on Windows 7 Pro selecting start minimized is ignored by Photoshop and it starts normally and continues to steal focus. 

[umpfgrmbl]

Adobe products doesn't care about the setting whether to start start minimized or not.

[Eduard_Shcherbanev]

Great. But is there a way to start Photoshop minimized when it is launched from Lightroom, for instance?

[stardefender]

Ok this is going to be a large rant, so you might decide to skip it.

Guys, to me it's clear that there's no rush for the Adobe developers to fix these things or other myriad of bugs still present after years of complains. Or add simple improvements to the workflow that were asked times and times over by users.

They're still counting on people to continue to pay for and use their software like mules going blindly forward, not trying to switch to alternative solutions because there's always an innate resistance to change and it takes time; for large companies it's a huge effort to switch logistics and third, why should they make any effort when things are looking profitable anyway, stocks are well on the rise and investors are happy. Like that old adage... "the shareholder is always right", was it?

So yeah, several users can complain and suggest stuff but they're always going to be at the "mercy" of the Adobe managers who might or might not decide to throw a bone and allocate some resources to get a fix done even if that seems less profitable from a shareholder pov.

So unless a visible chunk of their user base is starting to switch to competitors, there's no rush to actually make useful improvements - they'll keep tinkering here and there, get some feedback, tinkering a bit more... no pressure, we are already hooked on their software even if it's getting more and more broken. And when you start to question your choice, they're eventually release a long awaited fix from time to time to make you come back again, like saying "see? we're fixing things". We're always playing by their tune, not ours.

That's what i think, anyway.

[Ricardo_Galabru]

Hi everyone

Just checking in on the issue. It has first been brought up 18 month ago, and i'm still experiencing it (Win 10 CC2017.0.1). Does someone know if the devs are working on it ? Michael Witherell​, BobLevine​, Steve Werner​, Joel Cherney​, are you in contact with the team ? Is there something we can help you with regarding the matter ?

Thank you.

[Steve Werner]

It doesn't affect me because I'm on a Macintosh.

Have you filed a bug report here at the link below?

Feature Requests/Bug Reports

[BobLevine]

It doesn’t affect me, either and I’m on Windows 10. These apps launch so quickly I don’t see this behavior and to repeat what I’ve said before, launch the apps and leave them launched.

This isn’t anywhere near the top of issues effecting these applications and while I would like to see small annoyances like this eliminated, show-stopping bugs come first.