Focus when switching to desktop

To reproduce:

1. Create two virtual desktops, open notepad on each.
2. On the first desktop, click the notepad window to bring it to the foreground
3. Use the windows short cut “ctrl+winkey+right arrow key” to go to second desktop
4. Use Get-Desktop 0 | Switch-Desktop to go back to first virtual desktop

Focus isn’t restored to the notepad window. Let me know if you are able to reduce this, it is somewhat intermittent.

[MScholtes]

Hello,

I think I have a working solution.

After reading a lot about this, especially in the issue at mzomparelli (who should no longer be supported “openly”, as he makes closed software), @FuPeiJiang in combination with @rotemgrim’s comment gave me a solution: before switching the desktop, the focus should be placed on a window that is available on each virtual desktop, so that the focus is simply retained when switching! In VD.ahk, the taskbar (window class Shell_TrayWnd) is used for this, but I think the desktop is more useful. The idea to give away the focus with a message to minimize is a great idea (I don’t know who had it initially).

With the following code blocks (in C++) it worked for me:

HWND wnd = FindWindow(NULL, "Program Manager");
DWORD DesktopThreadId = GetWindowThreadProcessId(wnd, NULL);
DWORD ForegroundThreadId = GetWindowThreadProcessId(GetForegroundWindow(), NULL);
DWORD CurrentThreadId = GetCurrentThreadId();

if ((DesktopThreadId != 0) && (ForegroundThreadId != 0) && (ForegroundThreadId != CurrentThreadId))
{
  AttachThreadInput(DesktopThreadId, CurrentThreadId, true);
  AttachThreadInput(ForegroundThreadId, CurrentThreadId, true);
  SetForegroundWindow(wnd);
  AttachThreadInput(ForegroundThreadId, CurrentThreadId, false);
  AttachThreadInput(DesktopThreadId, CurrentThreadId, false);
}

. here is the code for switching the virtual desktop .

HWND wnd = FindWindow(NULL, "Program Manager");
ShowWindow(wnd, SW_MINIMIZE);

I’m not entirely happy with it because it’s probably not stable in every situation. I am still testing and experimenting…

Greetings

Markus

[MScholtes]

Hello @rotemgrim,

this is the permanent solution. However, it may not work in all cases, as it requires a certain cooperation of the displayed windows. I hope, however, it will work in almost all cases.

Greetings

Markus