Set Keyboard Focus and Window Focus

[bobort]

I use a PIN to use my security device. The Windows Security dialog does pop up, but it stays behind all the windows typically. It also doesn't have the keyboard focus so that I can just start typing the PIN. It's a convenience issue, I know.

[Aldaviva]

I have noticed that problem too, it's very annoying. Be aware that one program forcing another's window to gain focus is a very hard problem to solve in Windows. Microsoft doesn't want you to be able to do this for some silly, unjustifiable reason. The best solution I have found so far is thread injection, but even that doesn't work all the time. It's also very inconsistent to reproduce, so it's hard to verify whether it's fixed or not.

I tried to do this when the Windows Security dialog box appeared to unlock a KeePass database, but it didn't work and was eventually fixed by the plugin triggering the dialog in a different way.

I can give it a try, but I have learned not to get my hopes up with this problem.

[AFulgens]

I have noticed this too. The nice thing about AuthenticatorChooser is that if you focus on the security dialog pop up and wait a fraction of a second, it will kick in and select it for you. Thus the flow is slightly disturbed by the fact that sometimes the pop up is not focused, but as soon as you know this, you can look for it.

In my mental model this is the same as for example JetBrains products not showing any kind of feedback in the software when they are waiting for a touch on a Yubikey (for password vault opening or for PGP signing). I know now that if I do a certain action and it takes more than 2 seconds to look at my Yubikey whether it's blinking for anticipating a touch or not 🙃

[Aldaviva]

@bobort @AFulgens what operating system versions are you experiencing this issue on? I'm using Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100.4770) and am having trouble reproducing it now. I only remember this bug from Windows 10. Thanks.

[AFulgens]

winver says Version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.5624). Also note that sometimes randomly AuthenticationChooser does not trigger, but next time around it will. I could not pinpoint yet under what circumstances it won't trigger, even when the pop-up has the focus (I'd say it's less than 5% of cases in my experience), thus I did not open a ticket yet.

[bobort]

Windows 11 Version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.5472)

[Aldaviva]

Thanks, will test in a 23H2 virtual machine. Curious to see if the behavior changed.

[felipecrs]

I think this project helps with focusing the window:

• https://github.com/FroggMaster/AuthAlwaysOnTop