Since upgrading Opus v9.x to v10.x I've noticed an annoying problem. Under certain conditions, the creation of a file in a folder into which a lister is looking will cause that lister to steal focus and move to the foreground. v9 did not exhibit this behaviour.
For instance, I open Format Factory and drag a WAV file from an Opus lister window into Format Factory, and set it to convert to an MP3 in the source folder. As soon as Format Factory starts conversion and writes the new MP3 file to the folder, Opus steals focus and pops to the front, obscuring the FF window. I've managed to confirm this behaviour under other circumstances and with other programs, such as writing to the file system from a batch file, but the Format Factory thing is the most evident example because it's something I do quite a lot.
I've had a look through the new options panel but I can't see anything that immediately leaps out as being responsible for this. I also had a quick trawl through these forums with no joy, but with searches for 'steals focus' and 'takes focus' covering so many bases I'm prepared to concede that I may have missed it.
Any suggestions as to how to disable this feature, or confirmation that it's a known bug, would be appreciated.
Further investigation suggests this is a quirk of drag-and-drop between unfocused windows although I stress again that this did not occur under 9.x. I can now reproduce this without needing a third-party program and would ask others to try this to make sure it's not unique to my setup.
Open two Opus windows, not full screen, so you can see both. Each of my windows contains a dual pane display but I don't think that matters. Point a lister in one window to a folder containing a single test file (can be anything) and a lister in the other window to an empty folder.
Give the first window focus by clicking on its title bar, then drag and drop the test file from the first window to the second. This should move it to the second folder without giving the second window focus. Give the second window focus by clicking its title bar, then press Ctrl-Z to move the file back. This will move the file back to the first window without changing focus. This is as expected.
Now give the second window focus by clicking its title bar, then drag and drop the test file from the first window to the second. This will temporarily defocus both windows, returning focus to the second as the file is moved off the first. This has been standard Opus behaviour since as far as I can remember, and is what allows you to drag files from background listers onto foreground programs. You should end up with the file in the second window's folder, with focus back on the second window. Now, without clicking anything else, press Ctrl-Z to move the file back. As soon as the file appears in the first folder, the first window steals focus. This is definitely new behaviour for Opus version 10.x.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone else can confirm this. I'd be equally interested to hear from anyone for whom it doesn't behave this way, so I can start looking for differences on this system, or configuration options I may have missed.
I'm running 64bit Opus in a dual-pane configuration with Power Mode listers in both panes, on 64bit Windows 7.
I have noticed this behaviour too .. only seems to happen once .. refocusing the program that I want seems to stick until the operation on all files is completed. Dragging ietms to File Minimizer and starting the optimize process usually results in DOpus comming to the front.
That is certainly true. I can also avoid the problem by explicitly selecting the Opus window with a single click before dragging and dropping (via the taskbar if necessary) onto the second window. It's just annoying because I'm so used to a certain way of working. It's particularly frustrating when Opus is running -- as it most often is -- full-screen maximised, because when it steals focus it comes to the front and hides everything else.
Well, I'm reporting it too. Constant refocus on file update. Unfortunately, I need both windows open to accomplish certain tasks.
I believe I found a partial answer. A setting in preferences, under Miscellaneous, Advanced... Set no_external_change_notify to True and restart DOpus. This change no longer steals focus when editing files externally. However, there is a downside. This disables the auto-refresh feature of the lister, which must now be done manually.
Not much, but it's not as annoying now, and I can handle manual refresh.
I've been able to reproduce this under fairly specific conditions - I was hoping if the people who have experienced this could confirm whether these are the only conditions they are able to repeat it under as well:
You need a Lister in Details or Power mode
The Lister must be behind another window, and not currently active - but partially visible (so you can see some files in it)
You drag a file or folder from the Lister without making it active first (i.e. click directly on a file and drag it out)
The Lister should not come to the front at this point - this is by design. Now the bug seems to be that after doing this - the first external file change to the folder showing in that Lister will cause it to come to the front. From what I can see, this only happens once. Once the Lister has come to the front like this, the problem won't reoccur unless you perform the drag & drop steps above again.
Good morning all
While i was observing the unexpected behaviour (this thread's topic) in the past days/weeks and thought it was "cool" or "normal", i cant reproduce it anymore. I noticed it (sometimes) when i drag'n dropped audio files (e.g. *.WMA/FLAC/APE) into foobar2000 and did a conversion to mp3 (with or without a foobar2000 conversion preset). Then during the conversion of the 1st (or 2nd?) song, foobar2000 would minimize automatically ("cool!") and something else (probably the Lister you're talking about) would come into the front so that i could continue to do file management.
If THIS IS the behaviour that you are talking about, then: i cannot reproduce it this morning anymore. But if you guys have foobar2000, then you can test/try under which circumstances this thing happens.
As i said, i've tested long enough this morning, i cant reproduce it anymore. If, by chance, the behaviour (with foobar2000 + Lister) happens again, i will try to etc.
You need a Lister in Details or Power mode (don't know if it matters, but I also dual pane my lister)
The Lister must be behind another window, and not currently active - but partially visible (so you can see some files in it)
You drag a file or folder from the Lister without making it active first (i.e. click directly on a file and drag it out)
These are the exact conditions in which I am experiencing this particular 'bug'... tested with notepad++, Subtitle Workshop 4.0, MkvMerge 4.8.0 and MkvExtractGui2.2.2.5... likely does it with anything that edits files, but those are my 4 most frequently used programs in this kind of circumstance. Likewise, this happens only once, immediately after drag/drop and save, unless I do it again, which I frequently do. Yay for multi-monitor setups.
Since I only use details mode, I cannot attest to reproducing this effect with other listers.
I have this problem too... each time a file changes or a file is added to a lister, DOpus steals focus.
It is very annoying.
I thought it was a feature added into v10, but I cannot find a way to turn it off
Just to confirm that the latest beta has indeed cured this problem, so kudos on the quick fix. And I think it speaks volumes for the quality of this software that in all the time I've been using it I've only felt the need to post issues here three times, and one of those turned out not to be Opus' fault anyway.