P: When launching Photoshop it recurringly takes focus from another application/task (Windows)

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

When I open PhotoShop, it takes my computer a moment or two to open it (most of my PSDs are at least 2GB big), so I switch back to my browser to keep working, but every time there is an alert, or popup, or question, or it simply successfully opens the PSD, PhotoShop forces itself to the front, interrupting what I was doing in another window.
It can be very frustrating, especially since I am more often than not in the middle of doing something.
And I wish it was as simple as Alt+Tab-ing back to my window, but sometimes it just forces its way to the front again!
I don't suppose this is a feature that can be taken off/switched off?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

The photoshop keeps on popping in front of other programs when it is opening, its quite annoying, yea its good in case sometimes people forgot that they opened ps at the background but i think it would be better if it only pop out once and not multiple times.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Any news?

[stefanosjensen]

I can confirm that the latest update (from today) did not solve this problem.
@Jeffrey you started looking into this 4 months ago and have launched a few updates since.. what is the progress with it?

[jpbond13]

Is there someone in the Photoshop team who cares about our discussion anyway ?!!

[matsholmberg]

jpascal bondierlange probably not, but what else to do? 

In case Adobe actually reads this, and wants more info: PS CC steals focus alteast 4 times on startup on my Win 8.1 system. Every other app in existance does not. Please fix asap. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I would like add another voice to this thread. I previously spent 1.5 hours on the phone with an Adobe customer service rep who remoted in to my computer to check my computer settings and software to troubleshoot this exact issues. They resulted in not fixing anything and having some sort of excuse related to 'just deal with it'. 

Please find a solution to this!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I am a web developer.  I am constantly switching between Photoshop and other programs.  After switching off of Photoshop (usually using Cmd+Tab) to another program, Photoshop will automatically regain focus and pop back up on top of any other programs I've switched to.  This means I'm looking at or do something in Photoshop, Cmd+Tab to another program and start doing something, and 2 seconds or so later Photoshop pops back up and overtakes whatever else I am in the middle of doing.  *Extremely* annoying doesn't even begin to properly describe this.  

Why is it doing this and how can I make it stop?

[stefanosjensen]

So, for quick jobs, like croping, resizing and even slightly more advanced tasks, i've started launching pixlr instead. It is browser based, but launches way faster, and does not steal focus. Also browsing local files is faster than through Photoshop
Check it out https://pixlr.com/editor/

Adobe, please fix this issue so i can revert to using Photoshop for my jobs again, even when doing quick tasks

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I really hope this problem gets resolved in the next update. I can't believe how annoying and counter productive this problem is.

I start photoshop and head on over to my outlook to catch up on emails and PS rudely intrudes on my task and I get nothing done. Time is money. Please, Adobe, get his fixed ASAP!

[Andreas Jansson]

It's not what you expect from a professional piece of software.

[jpbond13]

i think i understand why Adobe doesn't care about this discussion. I've just bought a new computer and Photoshop is loading so fast that you can't feel the focus anymore....

[Andreas Jansson]

Nevertheless they ought to know how to perform tests on computers equipped with their own minimum requirements. I've got an older computer, but with SSD, and I tend to start Photoshop CS5 more often than CC, since CC is so much slower to start, than CS5 (and also this case with the refocusing Adobe "nag screen"). My best guess is that the Adobe developers look more at program structure and modularity, than usability and speed.  Please make the program code run faster, not slower!

[jpbond13]

Amen !

[bogdan.dragomir]

When Photoshop starts it comes as top windows even if I press Alt-Tab and see for a moment another application. What can I do to prevent this?

[golinvauxb1973]

Running latest version as of 2017-05-25 on Win10 Pro 64-bits.

Since Photoshop takes some time to load, I usually click on its icon in the takbar then go back to what I was doing before (browsing, replying to e-mails). It is VERY frustrating that 3 or 4 times (depending whether the Photoshop start page is enabled, whether PS is opened by launching the app or from opening a document), Photoshop steals the focus and prevents me from doing my other task. And If I alt-tab to my previous task, BAM!, PS wants to let me know he's progressing in the startup sequence and again fills up my whole screen... And again one more time. "Hey ! I'm done loading some modules! Have a look at my beautiful empty workspace while I am loading some other DLLs!"

Many other programs do not exhibit this behavior. It is rather flippant to assume that the person using Photoshop is not doing anything else and is patiently waiting for your application to start.

If Photoshop were able to load in a second, that would be acceptable, but it is not (don't get me wrong : PS is a complex application and it's okay for it to take several seconds to start.... but it's making this issue even more frustrating).

This shouldn't be too hard to change this behavior, so would Adobe be so kind as to try putting this fix in the next patch release backlog?

Also, if somebody has a workaround, it'd be great!

Thanks in advance

PS: pardon my sometimes bizarre wording, but I am french-speaking.

[Skwirlijvieux]

Topic's just been merged so Adobe can respond with a five-month-out-of-date dismissal: "We're working on this".  Not very hard, or very quickly, clearly.

[Skwirlijvieux]

Agreed - absolutely.

[pi_vit]

Nothing, dude) Do u see how many peoples waiting for this))) Adobe just doesn't hear us, but!! we r FAMILY and have to love them anyway.

[matsholmberg]

Well, atleast this "family" is witty. It helps. 

[Pin_Drop]

So, Jeff Tranberry, it's been five months. What's the status of your "investigation"? I mean, you could still try to hire more competent staff. I'm sure there is someone out there who could fix this issue within a day.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Quote from another user on this site: 
"As a former programmer, I can tell you that this was done on purpose. Back in Win95, there was a single call something like getfocus() and the app comes to the top. People abused it and by year 2000 windows no longer let apps come to top but just flashed the taskbar when that was called. Remember WinXP where the taskbar buttons flash orange?

Then later dodgy operators use stayontop() on and off and a bunch of other calls to simulate activating the window. It was done by MS office even. Then by around 2005 it was considered lame and rude to the user to do this. MS kept adding new things to prevent programs from taking focus so rudely in each version of windows.

Fast forward to 10 years ago in 2007 I don't think a single major software brand tried to annoy users anymore like this. Even splash screens, which used to be stayontop were not anymore. Even the old PS and LR didn't steal focus as I remember.

So I only started using CC in 2015, and it's really annoying. I can tell you for a fact that the engineers are NOT working on the issue. In fact the engineers have worked VERY HARD to be able to steal focus. Not only once, but 4-5 times during startup. It's not an accident, they HAD TO CALL THEIR MAGIC CODE EACH TIME to steal focus.

If they wanted they'd take 5 lines of code out. It would take one global search and maybe 30s of time.

----------SUMMARY--------

PROGRAMS DO NOT ACCIDENTALLY STEAL FOCUS. They work hard to get it (stealing focus) to work. Even MS office, with all access to secret windows libraries do NOT steal focus. Adobe is the ONLY major company now that loves stealing focus, not only that, 5 times for 20s it takes to load up everything.

Shame on you adobe."


Get this fixed!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Plus Lightroom. Thank you. But I do get the feeling it is very deliberate and not a bug..

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

> Plus Lightroom. Thank you. But I do get the feeling it is very deliberate and not a bug.>

If it were deliberate, then why don't I experience it? It seems to be restricted to Windows, and I'm sure if they wanted us to experience this truly annoying "feature," we'd all be experiencing it. Now who knows but what High Sierra might not bring out the worst of the app on our machines, too? <G>

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Still waiting!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

This happens to me as well and is one of the most annoying behaviours in any piece of software I've ever had to experience. 😕