Resolved Vista drops browser page

OK, I did a search for "browser loses focus" and all I'm finding is questions with no answers.

I did delete one of the widgets from the widget bar on the right side of the desktop, thinking that possibly it might be the culprit as it was one I turned on recently. No change.

Rebooted and opened one browser page (not in full screen mode) and just watched. Boring... until I watched it drop focus on the page.

SOMETHING is causing this to happen, apparently every 2 or 3 minutes or so. Sometimes, it goes back to the page I'm working on, sometimes it does not.

I tried to see if Task Manager would show a clue as to what it might be. Nope. I was hoping that it might show a program / page / program / anything, but nothing. There is a brief blink (descriptive, nothing actually blinks) of about 1/2 a second, then everything returns to normal (or does not, thereby "losing" the focus on the working - or front - page). Also, nothing obvious (to me, anyway) as a running process.

Check Performance tab and watch. Doing nothing, CPU Usage is about 1% (average), then a quick spike to 20%... and the focus is lost.

 

... and it looks like I've found the culprit (at least on my computer)!

HP Connections

After my last post, I just kept watching the Processes Tab in Task manager, and happened to catch a quick glimpse of HPxxxxx under Image name. Could not read it fast enough, so switched that column to alphabetical order. I only had 2 processes running that started with HP (a few others started with hp), so I just watch. HP Connections ran at 0%, then spiked briefly at 15%, corresponding to "losing focus ".

SO, after a quick Internet search, I ran msconfig and disabled it, then rebooted.

The problem of "losing focus" has not returned in 15 minutes. I'll continue to monitor for a few hours, just to be sure.

 

No more problems.

Sometimes you just have to "go away" from the problem for a while, then come back and get one more piece of info.

Thanks, Miz.

(now, if only I could figure out why I couldn't think of "focus" for an explanation... )