A standing gripe of mine is that current versions of Windows make it hard to tell which window is active. For some applications I can switch back to Windows Classic and have, say, a green title bar for active windows, and a tan one for inactive. That I can tell apart. But MS Office insists on using their own very limited set of colors, which are very hard to tell active from inactive. For a moment I thought I had found a solution, your "highlight window" feature. But, alas, it does not seem to change when a window loses focus. Did I miss a way to do this? Or should this be a feature request?

Thanks,

John

Until Jon has time to answer your question. What I use is WindowFX5 from Stardock, that allows me to customise the "inactive" windows in a few ways making then easier to see which has and which hasnt got the focus.

This seems to be a very popluar request.
I too have requested something similar via mail (to set the opacity different for the active and the inactive windows).

I think there is only a little thing missing to get what we want:
If we could get a 'trigger' event whenever the active window changes
we could script functions to set the highlight or change the opacity

I second that if we could get eventing in the API, that would open a whole new world for many things for the "active window" automatically without need for hotkey or titlebutton! I put in another API request/ideas on another post to Jon as well!

I have 4 monitors on Windows 7 at home, and 4 monitors on a Mac at work. Knowing which window has focus is the biggest difficulty for me with multiple monitors. I find myself clicking many extra unnecessary times before I start typing to make sure the typing will go to the window I'm looking at and the mouse is over. I have deleted files, sent empty emails, and taken many screenshots of the wrong window because my keystrokes went to the wrong window.

I see 3 approaches to solving this, there may be more.

1. Ensure the window under the mouse is the window with focus. If you move the mouse over a different window, that new window gets the focus. This way, you know that if you see the mouse over the same window, you can start typing. Windows actually has a setting to do this under 'accessibility', and it does not solve this problem well. It seemed like it was going to work, but caused huge problems during certain pop-ups. So, this approach is no good.

2. Put some sort of border around the window with focus. On my Windows machine I use a program called Sandboxie. Sandboxie runs a program in a sandbox, so when you close it everything that program has modified is deleted and reset back to where you were. That part is not important, though. What is important is that Sandboxie puts a yellow border around its window when it has focus. I watch movies in Sandboxie just because I know if I see the yellow border, my keystrokes will control the movie, and not screw with my emails, which I frequently check while I'm watching movies. If Sandboxie can do it for its own window, can Display Fusion manage this for all windows?

3. Work at the monitor level instead of the window level, because if I know I'm looking at the right monitor it's pretty easy to know which window has focus. This is not always true, but often it is true, and this solution, while not perfect, would be a big help.

I tried Actual Multiple Monitors (I think it was) which had an option to gray all the windows that were not in focus. While this sounded like a good solution on paper, it was actually pretty irritating because it took a few seconds to do the graying even with an i7 (apparently it took a lot of resources), and the contents of some of the Windows got screwed up with the graying (moire patterns, or odd pixelization). So this turned out to be a not-very-good solution. Good on paper, bad in execution.

The Sandboxie solution seems to me to be the best solution. Just put a noticeable border around the window with focus, even if it is windowed, maximized, or full-screen.

I am very happy to hear that. Thanks for the reply and the good news.

happy too - and thanks for keeping us informed

How are the developments going on this topic? Any idea when we might see something?

Hello, any update about the beta free version trial including window hovering features? Thank you.

We are interested in a feature where mouse hovering over a selected window brings it into focus and the respective taskbar icon depresses or highlites making it quick to locate. Another program, has the feature and includes a hover time delay option. I thought you mentioned in the thread it might be in your beta release and if any confirmed update?

Keith, what is the functionality you are talking about?

With the beta, can I tell DF to put a highlight around the window that has focus, or indicate it in some other way?

To the other poster, the "give window under mouse the focus" is already available in Windows. I tried it, and it was not usable, but you might like it.

That's great news. Any idea when version 8 will be out of beta and into production? I'm trying to decide if I should try the beta, or not. If production is a week away, then I'll wait.

I thought I would try this now on DF 8.1.1. I downloaded the script and created the trigger. It says I need a 'match'. I just picked 'text' and left it blank.

This seems to do what I want (red line around the active window) except the red line doesn't go away when I click to another window.

Do I need another trigger or something to clear the red line when I click away?

Seems to do the trick...

Just what I wanted!

I'll have to give it a week to be sure there are no odd side-effects, but this looks perfect.

Thanks Keith.

This has really improved my Windows experience on 4 monitors. I no longer have to click the window I want to start typing in, because now I can just see if it's red-trimmed, and the focus is on the correct window, or not.

Just one little tweak request though ... I get a notification pop-up from the systray every time I switch windows. Is there any way to suppress this script from generating a pop-up? I'd prefer to do it in DF instead of telling Windows to ignore DF notifications.

Beautiful. Thank you KEITH!

Keith, I'm trying to follow your reply (#18 in the discussion) about how to implement this highlight active window. I think you are assuming that everyone knows DF inside and out. Your instructions are either incomplete, or not accurate due to updates. None of the "click here's" or "add to's" etc..... seem to work.

Can you please offer a detailed step by step on how to do this. You can either reply via email or on-screen.

Just fyi..... the same scenario as indicated, occurs in many of your other replys to people as well. While the functions and possibilities are endless... the chances to screw something up is equally endless. I'm afraid to touch anything!!!

Thanks.....
Jim

Jim, see if this helps.

Download the script from post #22and open it in notepad.
Open the DisplayFusion settings window by right clicking on a secondary monitor's taskbar and choosing Settings.

Click on the Functions tab on the left and then select Add Scripted from the top, a new window will open.
Give the script a name and a description then paste the script into the large window making sure you overwrite all the text in there then click OK.(see screenshot).

You should now see the script you just created in the main window under Scripted Functions (see screenshot).
Click on the Triggers tab on the left.
Make sure Trigger is enabled is checked at the top and in the dropdown underEvent select Windows Focused.
The Frequency should be Always and under Match Conditions check Process Filename. In the Application box enter *.* then under Actions on the right select Add at the bottom. (See ScreenShot).

In the dropdown that opens select Run Function (screenshot) then click on the dropdown and scroll to your script. (See screenshot).
OK your way out of all the open windows and test your script is running .

More Screenshots

Alan.... I was able to get it to box one screen. When I changed monitors to any of three, I get a 'color' selector box pop up. I click on that box twice, it goes away temporarily. Immediately comes back with mouse movement, or selecting anything, anywhere.
I can't do anything. I then have to disable
the function again, to regain control of my
computer.

I wish it worked..... but it doesn't for me.

Thanks.....
Jim

I followed my instructions from scratch and it worked as its supposed to, no doubt one of the BFS team will sort it out for you.

Sorry
Alan

Keith....here you go. DF Settings backup.

Thanks.....
Jim

Keith....followed your instructions. Had to click "Restore"... there wasn't any "Import" button to click.
Nothing happened. No boxed screen. I then turned off Display Fusion and restarted......... still nothing.

Let me know if there is anything else I can try.

Thanks....
Jim

Keith..... I actually had to disable the Function again. The settings caused problems.
Two that I could see immediately..... there may have been others, but the two were game breakers for me.

1. The changes prevented me from "right-clicking" on the programs in my menu bar and getting the short-cut to a 'pinned list' of recently opened spreadsheets, doc, pdf's...etc...etc...

2. We run Lotus Notes on our computers, I have that opened on my main monitor, with the main Notes screen on the left side of the monitor, and the Notes Email, on the right half. With the Highlight Active Window function Enabled, it would only allow me to access one of these 'half-screens'.... the Email side. I was not even able to switch (Alt-Tab) to the main database listing of Notes.

Sure would like for this to work, but it can't cause problems. A simple box around/bordering the screen I am active in is all that is needed.

Thanks........
Jim

Thanks for trying!! I'm not sure what the problem is. I tried it on my home pc last night, and it appeared to work as designed. So the problem has to do with a pc configuration setting somewhere on my work pc.

Both are running Win7 Professional. The most apparent, upfront difference, is the home pc only has two monitors (2 x 24"), while the work pc has 3 (3 x 27"). I didn't try the home pc with Lotus Notes running, but the work pc almost always has Notes running.

Thanks again for trying!! Hopefully you can come up with something down the road.

Regards.....
Jim

Keith......Just to follow up on my previous post. The highlight windows does work on my home pc with only 1 issue. The boxes around the windows works fine, but I still don't have access to my "pinned" lists on the taskbar. When I disable the highlight windows in DF settings and apply, the pinned lists return.

Regards....
Jim

Keith, WOW!! I think you've got it!! So far, everything appears to work great. Active window is highlighted, pinned lists are accessible. Haven't run into any hitches yet. I'll try it on home pc tonight (or maybe tomorrow night)...... I'm pc'd out right now.

Thanks for hanging on to this and continued efforts. Very much appreciated.

Regards.....Jim

Keith..... so after using this a day... I ran into some things I can't explain. There is something I do, or series of events (unknown), that causes this to stop functioning. The window stops being highlighted in red. I haven't nailed down the sequence of events that may be causing it, but still looking.

It's easy enough to fix when it stops working, just have to go to DF Settings, click on that 'trigger', then ENABLE... APPLY... then OK. It starts back again.

If I'm able to narrow down the sequence of events causing it to stop working I'll let you know. Still love the feature though.

Thanks.....
Jim

Keith... I have watched this closely for several days now. I'm not able to figure out a pattern that causes it to become non-functional. If you have just a couple of different windows open and switch between the two, there is no problem. But sometimes clicking on a link or shortcut, causes another window to open, which that operation can cause again, another window to open. Somewhere in that process, the failure occurs. That said... sometimes it will start working at some point down the road without doing anything to re-enable it.

There is another function in DF, called Monitor Fading. This only highlights the 'inactive' monitors, but it seems to keep up nicely when you change monitors. So, if you could set up something like this... only with the Red Outline on the 'active' monitor, I think it would work great. That way there is much less for DF to track than switching with the active 'window'.

Just my 2cents worth.....

Thanks......
Jim

sorry to revive this old thread...

I'm using the reg key provided and it works for me. However, I noticed a small issue. When I have this Trigger enabled, if I were to click on an app in my taskbar to minimize it, then it will not work. The app will always restore to be the active window. The only way I can minimize it is to click on the minimize button on the top right corner of the window. However, sometimes it's easier and faster to just click the app in the taskbar to minimize it.

If I disable the Trigger, then this behaviour will be back to normal.

Here you go.

It was for every application, such as Firefox, Rambox, etc. Issue is intermittent. Sometimes it minimizes from taskbar fine, sometimes it doesn't.

Have tried that already and unfortunately, it doesn't. I have to completely disable the trigger and only then will it work again. At the moment, I have a crappy workaround. I took a registry backup of my DisplayFusion configuration, one with the trigger enabled and another with the trigger disabled.

I then have a powershell script that will call the different registry backup files for when I want to enable or disable the trigger. Ideally though, I just want to keep the trigger enabled and have it working properly all the time...

Hi,
I try the script attached on 9.8 but it takes lots of cpu everytime I move any window. Is that normal?
Thanks

Actually it is fine, I used the reg file and it seems to have created havoc on my system. I created my own trigger using the script above and it works fine(no cpu issue anymore).
Thanks a lot

Hi,
The minimize from taskbar does not work for me however on 9.8
Thanks

These are the settings I'm using (in the snapshot) and it works well for highlighting a window that I activate. But the red border does not go away after I activate another window. So all windows remain highlighted.

Why won't this script clear the red border when another window becomes the active window?

Thanks

Thanks, looks good now!