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I find it very annoying and disruptive that Windows opens new windows in the foreground. Often I'm typing something in a window when some other program pops up. Since I'm currently typing, the new window suddenly receives all keyboard input, which can result in something I do not want.

For example, I might be pressing the C button, which might hit the Cancel button in the new window. In this case, the new window will disappear without giving me a chance to see what it is about.

Is there a way to tell windows to open every window in the background?

EDIT: Since there are programmatic ways for processes to put their windows in the foreground (BringWindowToTop), I might need a system-wide hack to disable BringWindowToTop. The only things that should bring windows to the foreground are:

  • Window navigation via Alt-Tab
  • A mouse click on a window
  • A mouse click on the taskbar
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  • This seems nearly impossibe to accomplish. You would better find out what program comes to the foreground and stop that from happening, or put those programs in some kind of container (virtual machine, remote desktop environment, etc)
    – LPChip
    Sep 12, 2017 at 14:20
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    Alternatively, you may use start /min command to open a minimized program. Link.
    – Biswapriyo
    Sep 12, 2017 at 15:16
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    @Appleoddity multitasking is another. Launch 3 programs, switching tasks, then get annoyed if one of those programs finally launch and steal focus.
    – LPChip
    Sep 12, 2017 at 15:53
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    It's definitely multitasking. Launch a program or some remote connection, and while it's loading I'm using another monitor to continue working. Suddenly the loading process displays some loading indicator window, and my typing in the other window "presses" the cancel button on the loading indicator. It happens all the time, and it has nothing to do with malware. Of course, I could wait until the process has loaded. But this would cost me a lot of productivity, since it happens very often that I need to start up new processes or remote connections.
    – Jonas Sourlier
    Sep 12, 2017 at 20:04
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    There should be a setting for this in Windows. I don't wan't the programs to be able to make that decision themselves if they wan't to get the focus or not.
    – Crouching Kitten
    Sep 5, 2019 at 19:00

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