IE8 address box steals focus from search box

[Stephen Howe]

Hi

Running latest IE8

I keep finding that when I start IE8, type an expression in the search box in the top right corner, the address box steals focus
So if I type "SQL Server 2008 Client installation", the letters "SQL S" are in the search box and the rest of the letters "erver
2008 Client installation" are now in the address box.

This is deeply annoying.
Anyone seen this and know how it can be fixed?

It only seems to do this at IE8 startup or new tab startup.
After that, all words are in the search box and the address box dioes not steal focus.

Thanks

Stephen Howe

 

[rob^_^]

Hi,
"It only seems to do this at IE8 startup or new tab startup."

What toolbars do you have installed?

Does this happen if you run IE in noAddons mode?

Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Internet Explorer (No Addons)

Another thing to try is

Tools>Manage Addons - Search Providers, select your default Search Provider
and disable search suggestions if it is enabled. Please post back with
details of your Search Provider or your Installed toolbars.

The keyboard shortcuts you can use to navigate the Address bar and search
box are

Alt+A - focus on the Address bar
Alt+E - focus on the Search Box

Regards.

"Stephen Howe" <sjhoweATdialDOTpipexDOTcom> wrote in message
newsgq3269qr5tcklitqvbriponcnpgrtfhgh@4ax.com...
> Hi
>
> Running latest IE8
>
> I keep finding that when I start IE8, type an expression in the search box
> in the top right corner, the address box steals focus
> So if I type "SQL Server 2008 Client installation", the letters "SQL S"
> are in the search box and the rest of the letters "erver
> 2008 Client installation" are now in the address box.
>
> This is deeply annoying.
> Anyone seen this and know how it can be fixed?
>
> It only seems to do this at IE8 startup or new tab startup.
> After that, all words are in the search box and the address box dioes not
> steal focus.
>
> Thanks
>
> Stephen Howe
>

 

[Jeff Strickland]

"Stephen Howe" <sjhoweATdialDOTpipexDOTcom> wrote in message
newsgq3269qr5tcklitqvbriponcnpgrtfhgh@4ax.com...
> Hi
>
> Running latest IE8
>
> I keep finding that when I start IE8, type an expression in the search box
> in the top right corner, the address box steals focus
> So if I type "SQL Server 2008 Client installation", the letters "SQL S"
> are in the search box and the rest of the letters "erver
> 2008 Client installation" are now in the address box.
>
> This is deeply annoying.
> Anyone seen this and know how it can be fixed?
>
> It only seems to do this at IE8 startup or new tab startup.
> After that, all words are in the search box and the address box dioes not
> steal focus.
>
> Thanks
>
> Stephen Howe


You have to wait for the page to fully load before you start your search
string.

I find this to be very annoying too.

 

[Jeff Strickland]

"rob" <iecustomizer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
newsFP3WWtELHA.4816@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> "It only seems to do this at IE8 startup or new tab startup."
>
> What toolbars do you have installed?
>
> Does this happen if you run IE in noAddons mode?
>
> Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Internet Explorer (No Addons)
>
> Another thing to try is
>
> Tools>Manage Addons - Search Providers, select your default Search
> Provider and disable search suggestions if it is enabled. Please post back
> with details of your Search Provider or your Installed toolbars.
>
> The keyboard shortcuts you can use to navigate the Address bar and search
> box are
>
> Alt+A - focus on the Address bar
> Alt+E - focus on the Search Box
>
> Regards.




If the cursor is placed in the search box BEFORE the page is finished
loading, the focus will change even if the search string is already being
entered. It doesn't matter how one puts the focus onto the search box, if
the page is not done loading, the focus will change to the address bar.

Start IE
Immediately put the cursor in the Search Box
Begin inputting the search string.
As you input your search, the focus will be taken off of the Search Box, and
your search string will be entered into the Address Bar. This is a normal
behavior, and the only remedy is to wait for IE to finish loading the Home
Page before entering a search string.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume two things, the OP is using
Yahoo! for his homepage, and he's searching from the Yahoo Search box. He's
not using the search box on the toolbar.

 

[Stephen Howe]

Thanks Jeff for the response, you have describe the behaviour exactly

>I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume two things, the OP is using
>Yahoo! for his homepage, and he's searching from the Yahoo Search box. He's
>not using the search box on the toolbar.

Nope on both counts. I dont like Yahoo because they do blocking of Pipex, my ISP
Even worse, I cant email my Father because he signed up with BT Internet which does some type of tie in with Yahoo
Yahoo customer support says I must get my ISP to email them to counter the block and at that point I lose interest - too much
hassle.

It is easier to squeeze blood out a stone than get my ISP to talk to Yahoo.



Home Page is about:blank and search provider is Google.
Using about:blank as a command line argument.

Stephen Howe

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlrjeff@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:hvt71a$5pf$1@news.eternal-september.org...


> You have to wait for the page to fully load before you start your search
> string.
>
> I find this to be very annoying too.


If you have to start typing before waiting for About:Blank to finish
opening you probably have too many add-ons to load.

BTW you could always change your startup to be iexplore.exe -nohome


---

 

[Jeff Strickland]

"Stephen Howe" <sjhoweATdialDOTpipexDOTcom> wrote in message
news:mpf426t5if51eovvav85g63npfqct7b3kc@4ax.com...
> Thanks Jeff for the response, you have describe the behaviour exactly
>
>>I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume two things, the OP is using
>>Yahoo! for his homepage, and he's searching from the Yahoo Search box.
>>He's
>>not using the search box on the toolbar.
>
> Nope on both counts. I dont like Yahoo because they do blocking of Pipex,
> my ISP
> Even worse, I cant email my Father because he signed up with BT Internet
> which does some type of tie in with Yahoo
> Yahoo customer support says I must get my ISP to email them to counter the
> block and at that point I lose interest - too much
> hassle.
>
> It is easier to squeeze blood out a stone than get my ISP to talk to
> Yahoo.
>
>
>
> Home Page is about:blank and search provider is Google.
> Using about:blank as a command line argument.
>
> Stephen Howe


Well, whatever. You have to wait for IE to load before you can input your
search string, else the focus will change in midstream from the search box
to the address box. This is normal, all be it annoying, behavior.

I've never heard of a Website blocking an ISP. I had an ISP once that
blocked mail delivery from different hosts, such as Hotmail, because the
hosts did nothing to prevent spam artists from plying their trade.I don't
understand why you can't open IE to Yahoo! as one of your homepages (with
Tabbed Browsing, you can have several homepages if you want), and use Yahoo
Mail to create email to send to your Dad. You could have a Yahoo Mail
account, and access that account from ANYWHERE and collect and send e-mail.
You could go to your brother's house and use his computer to get to your
Yahoo Mail account. You could go to the library to get to your account.
Yahoo does not care how you get there, and they don't have any interest in
your ISP, or anybody's ISP for that matter.

You may not be able to use an external e-mail client to check your Yahoo
Mail account through your ISP, that's entirely possible. Having said that, I
use Outlook Express to poll my Yahoo Mail account, and send messages from my
Yahoo Mail account.

I don't understand what issues you have with your ISP and Yahoo. It really
doesn't matter though. You can go into TOOLS>INTERNET OPTIONS and set the
Homepage to Blank. You don't need Command Line arguments to do this.

 

[Stephen Howe]

>Well, whatever. You have to wait for IE to load before you can input your
>search string, else the focus will change in midstream from the search box
>to the address box. This is normal, all be it annoying, behavior.
>
>I've never heard of a Website blocking an ISP.

I am not talking about the website. I am talking about Yahoo blocking email.
For some reason, my email address is regarded as a spam address
For email that is common. That is anti-spam measures.
BT Internet use Yahoo antispam services and so I am cut off.
And since I am not on broadband and am very up on malware with a battery of anti-malware measures, I cannot be a zombiebot PC.

Search for Verizon class action suite and you will find Verizon paying to their customers for the bonehead move of blocking
_ALL_ email from Europe, classing it as spam. This pissed off US citizens.

So I hate Yahoo with vengence. They are evil.

And in the case of my Father, some of his clients are the United Nations WorldBank.
Some of their members have just discovered that Yahoo bounces their email as well, so they are pissed off with Yahoo.

> I had an ISP once that
>blocked mail delivery from different hosts, such as Hotmail, because the
>hosts did nothing to prevent spam artists from plying their trade.I don't
>understand why you can't open IE to Yahoo! as one of your homepages (with
>Tabbed Browsing, you can have several homepages if you want), and use Yahoo
>Mail to create email to send to your Dad.

Yeah I can. I can set up a Google Email account. It is the hassle factor.

> You could have a Yahoo Mail
>account, and access that account from ANYWHERE and collect and send e-mail.
>You could go to your brother's house and use his computer to get to your
>Yahoo Mail account. You could go to the library to get to your account.
>Yahoo does not care how you get there, and they don't have any interest in
>your ISP, or anybody's ISP for that matter.

Yup, but it wont be Yahoo. Anyone but Yahoo.

>You may not be able to use an external e-mail client to check your Yahoo
>Mail account through your ISP, that's entirely possible. Having said that, I
>use Outlook Express to poll my Yahoo Mail account, and send messages from my
>Yahoo Mail account.
>
>I don't understand what issues you have with your ISP and Yahoo. It really
>doesn't matter though. You can go into TOOLS>INTERNET OPTIONS and set the
>Homepage to Blank. You don't need Command Line arguments to do this.

True. But this is at work where Group Policy enforces an internal web page which I hate.
however a ShortCut with command line parameter beats the Group Policy. Freedom!!!!

Thanks

S

 

[Yuri Nalysis]

: I am not talking about the website. I am talking about Yahoo blocking
email.
: For some reason, my email address is regarded as a spam address
: For email that is common. That is anti-spam measures.
: BT Internet use Yahoo antispam services and so I am cut off.
: And since I am not on broadband and am very up on malware with a battery
of anti-malware measures, I cannot be a zombiebot PC.
:
Your email being blocked is not an IE issue.

 

[Jeff Strickland]

"Yuri Nalysis" <yuri@nalysis.invalid> wrote in message
news:i001dg$fjo$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>
> : I am not talking about the website. I am talking about Yahoo blocking
> email.
> : For some reason, my email address is regarded as a spam address
> : For email that is common. That is anti-spam measures.
> : BT Internet use Yahoo antispam services and so I am cut off.
> : And since I am not on broadband and am very up on malware with a battery
> of anti-malware measures, I cannot be a zombiebot PC.
> :
> Your email being blocked is not an IE issue.
>
>

He knows that. You got into the middle of a discussion about something else
that is an IE issue -- an issue with no resolution, but the tangental
complaints were being discusssed.

 

[Stephen Howe]

>Your email being blocked is not an IE issue.

Yes you are right. Sorry. It is basically topic drift.

Getting back:

Microsoft should fix IE8 so that on Web Page startup if the focus is now on some other part of the page then they *DO NOT* set
the focus to the Address box. If there is no focus by the time the page is almost up, then yes, put it to the Address box.

This allows who are starting to search before web page is rendered not to be irritated with a focus steal.
It is no different to change in Windows that prevents non-current applications from grabbing focus when yo uare not currently
interacting with them, now Windows just flashes the taskbar icon.

Thanks

Stephen Howe

 

[rob^_^]

That's the responsibility of web developers. Usually good web pages will
place focus on the first input box on a web page when it completes loading.
Regards.

"Stephen Howe" <sjhoweATdialDOTpipexDOTcom> wrote in message
news:r0h72693hdjas9dtgrnf220fhucgvos4vo@4ax.com...
>
>>Your email being blocked is not an IE issue.
>
> Yes you are right. Sorry. It is basically topic drift.
>
> Getting back:
>
> Microsoft should fix IE8 so that on Web Page startup if the focus is now
> on some other part of the page then they *DO NOT* set
> the focus to the Address box. If there is no focus by the time the page is
> almost up, then yes, put it to the Address box.
>
> This allows who are starting to search before web page is rendered not to
> be irritated with a focus steal.
> It is no different to change in Windows that prevents non-current
> applications from grabbing focus when yo uare not currently
> interacting with them, now Windows just flashes the taskbar icon.
>
> Thanks
>
> Stephen Howe
>

 

[Jeff Strickland]

"rob" <iecustomizer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uU8NBM%23ELHA.5668@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> That's the responsibility of web developers. Usually good web pages will
> place focus on the first input box on a web page when it completes
> loading.
> Regards.
>

You, sir, are more full of shit than a Christmas turkey.

OR, you miss the point entirely.

If the Address Bar is the "first input box" when the page completes loading,
then it will steal the focus from any secondary input box thast mi8ght have
already been selected by the user. HINT: this is the problem.

The user selects a secondary input box BEFORE the page completes loading,
and focus is stolen away from that box and is taken to a different box. To
the extent this happens, good development or otherwise won't change
anything.

The solution is for one to allow the page to complete the process of
building before attempting to initiate a search.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

"rob" <iecustomizer@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uU8NBM#ELHA.5668@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> That's the responsibility of web developers. Usually good web pages will
> place focus on the first input box on a web page when it completes
> loading.


Rob,

It is an IE issue, not a web page issue. Jeff explained this perfectly.
Try it--even with About:Blank if that renders slowly enough or if you are
quick enough at getting into the Search bar. Using -nohome is an
effective workaround if you know there is always the possibility that you
are going to want to search immediately.


Robert
---

 

[Menu Bar]

I think this would be called the: "Default Snap-To"

This works when used in the Shortcut, thank you!

Properties of the IE shorcut \ Target
"CProgram Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -nohome

I cleard out everything for the home page, but it puts
about:blank
back in

When I open the browser, yes, I can go directly to the search cell with no waiting . . . the tab says "Connecting" now, though, wonder what that is about, now that's bugging me.

I found this page, wonder where MS has the info:
Internet Explorer 8 Command-line Switches (Parameters)
IE8 Command-line Switches