I might be a rarity here but I'm perfectly happy with IE7 - except for 
one thing.  It insists on grabbing focus during page loading while I'm 
trying to do something else.

Say I'm reading an email, and choose to click on a hyperlink.  Ideally 
I'd have the browser bring up the page _under_ the email while I carry 
on reading for a while, rather than wait while the page loads.  So, I 
ALT-Tab back to the email, only to find that IE asserts itself on top, 
often long before the page has loaded.  I ALT-tab back to the email, and 
quite often IE will push itself to the top yet again.  Cross!

I've various good reasons to stay with IE, although I also use Firefox 
and Chrome when it suits, me, but I'd love to know if there's a way to 
stop it doing this!

Phil, London

<uk.net.web.authoring>
<Philip Herlihy>
<Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:19:10 +0000>
<%Eyll.162$183.157@newsfe09.ams2>

> I might be a rarity here but I'm perfectly happy with IE7
> 

IE used to be my default browser - but when that highly annoying popup 
box appeared everytime you highlight some text - i dumped IE8 and 
started using opera as my default browser .


-- 
www.cannabiswindow.co.uk/guestbook_latest_entrys.php

On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:19:10 +0000, Philip Herlihy put finger to
keyboard and typed:

>I might be a rarity here but I'm perfectly happy with IE7 - except for 
>one thing.  It insists on grabbing focus during page loading while I'm 
>trying to do something else.
>
>Say I'm reading an email, and choose to click on a hyperlink.  Ideally 
>I'd have the browser bring up the page _under_ the email while I carry 
>on reading for a while, rather than wait while the page loads.  So, I 
>ALT-Tab back to the email, only to find that IE asserts itself on top, 
>often long before the page has loaded.  I ALT-tab back to the email, and 
>quite often IE will push itself to the top yet again.  Cross!
>
>I've various good reasons to stay with IE, although I also use Firefox 
>and Chrome when it suits, me, but I'd love to know if there's a way to 
>stop it doing this!

You can't, easily, because it's a Windows thing not an IE thing.
Firefox and Chrome will, on a Windows PC, behave in exactly the same
way if they're set to be the default browser.

The problem with Windows is that it expects the active window to be
the top window at all times. And a browser that is in the process of
loading a page is considered to be active.

Having said that, it's less of an issue with browsers that render
faster, as you can let them load and then alt-tab back to the email
with less risk of them grabbing focus back again a few seconds later. 

Mark
-- 
Geek for Hire: http://mark.goodge.co.uk/geek-for-hire/

"Mark Goodge"  wrote in message 
news:98ldp45ujiuoddpr7crslak326ghdcm83q@news.markshouse.net...
<snip>
:
: The problem with Windows is that it expects the active window to be
: the top window at all times. And a browser that is in the process of
: loading a page is considered to be active.

Funny that, IE6.xx on XP flashes it's browsers taskbar button if a 
page is loading but the window doesn't have focus - and AFAIK I have 
not made any changes to any OS settings. This looks like a IE7 
problem, and considering that my IE7 upgrade (sic) lasted all but half 
an hour before being rolled back to IE6, it looks like just another 
example of how MS has lost it's way ever further with IE. :~(
-- 
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Hyde Park and 'speakers corner'...
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Please reply via group.

+mrcakey wrote:
> "Jerry" <mapson.scarts@btinternet.com.INVALID> wrote in message 
> news:gn6mst$n9r$4@news.motzarella.org...
>> "Mark Goodge"  wrote in message
>> news:98ldp45ujiuoddpr7crslak326ghdcm83q@news.markshouse.net...
>> <snip>
>> :
>> : The problem with Windows is that it expects the active window to be
>> : the top window at all times. And a browser that is in the process of
>> : loading a page is considered to be active.
>>
>> Funny that, IE6.xx on XP flashes it's browsers taskbar button if a
>> page is loading but the window doesn't have focus - and AFAIK I have
>> not made any changes to any OS settings. This looks like a IE7
>> problem, and considering that my IE7 upgrade (sic) lasted all but half
>> an hour before being rolled back to IE6, it looks like just another
>> example of how MS has lost it's way ever further with IE. :~(
>> -- 
> 
> Have to say my Firefox installation does the "flashing but not taking focus" 
> thing as well. I'm on XP3.
> 
> --
> +mrcakey
> http://www.everythingthatswrongwiththeworld.com 
> 
> 

I experimented for a week or so with Firefox as my default browser, and 
I was surprised that the comparison wasn't clear.  When I'm reading an 
email with lots of links I want to follow, I don't think I'm seeing the 
same behaviour as I was complaining about in IE7 - when I ALT-Tab back 
to the email the browser renders in the background.  However, Firefox 
takes three times as long as IE7 to come up in the first place, and I 
find that more annoying!  Some folk are just hard to please...

I do think that IE7 is calling an API to push itself to the top of the 
window stack, and I really wish it wouldn't.  I seem to remember IE6 did 
the same?

Phil