Some apps seem to get to a state where input isn't allowed

[dkarr]

One thing happens to me every day or so that I thought might be related to Dexpot, but until today it only happened with Eclipse, so I wasn't certain it was a Dexpot problem.

What happens is that I switch back to the desktop with Eclipse and click in the window, but the computer just beeps at me, almost as if it thinks there's an application-modal window displayed. The display is updated properly, it just won't let me put focus in the window. I can drag the window from the preview window, but otherwise the app is dead to me. I end up having to kill the process and restart it. On rare occasions it will fix itself if the app itself spawns a new window as a result of some sort of asynchronous behavior, and then I can put focus on its windows again. For instance, Eclipse sometimes pops up a separate window saying that there are new plugin updates. If I click on that, it brings up the update window from Eclipse, and now it all works fine.

I just saw this happen with the desktop I run Outlook in. I had the main window and several message windows open, but I now can't put focus in any of them. It just beeps at me. The behavior is identical to what I've been seeing in Eclipse. Outlook isn't really frozen. From our instant messaging app I can initiate an email window, which works fine. I tried sending a note to myself, and I see it update in the Outlook window, I just can't put focus in the existing Outlook windows.

[fusionice]

Try pressing the Windows key twice.

[dkarr]

That didn't help. Eclipse got into this state again this morning, forcing me to kill it and restart.

[Patrick]

Do you have the option "Keep all taskbar buttons visible" enabled?

[dkarr]

i do.

[Patrick]

Then check if the problem still occurs with the option disabled.