Focus issue in PuTTYNG session after switching tabs

[Eldaw]

Normally, when a SSH session has focus and you click on something to take focus away (e.g. click on the taskbar or another application), if you then click back on the titlebar of the mRemoteNG window, focus is returned to the SSH session correctly.

However, if you switch tabs just prior to taking focus away from mRemoteNG, then focus doesn't return to the SSH session correctly when you activate mRemoteNG again.

Try this: Have 2 SSH tabs open (using PuTTYNG) with focus currently in the first tab. Click on the tab header for the 2nd tab and notice (by looking at the text cursor) that the 2nd SSH tab now appears to have focus. Click an empty spot on the Windows taskbar to take application focus away from mRemoteNG. Click on the titlebar of mRemoteNG. Notice that the focus does not return to the SSH session.

I'm running mRemoteNG Beta 3 on Windows 10.

[kmscode]

Focus issues with PuTTY are known.

This most likely isn't going to be fixable with PuTTY in use. The solution would be to replace PuTTY: #181

[kmscode]

Comment from @cusco #520

Hello all. I've searched on the internet and I find many people reporting this issue. On foruns and Jira, but I didn't find the issue here. Also reports I found are old.

Basically, when i have mRemoteNG opened with at least a putty session, I can't cycle correctly thorough windows applications with alt tab.

Have mRemoteNG focused Alt + Tab to another App -> stays on mRemoteNG (is it focusing putty?) Alt + Tab again to another App -> stays on mRemoteNG (is it focusing back mRemoteNG ?) Alt + Tab again (third time) to another App -> changes to the next app (say, browser) Alt + Tab + Tab + Tab to yet another App -> changes to the 3rd App (say, skype) Alt + Tab should go back to mRemoteNG but no. mRemoteNG stays in 3rd place

Any window/app that I focus to, will then be always before mRemoteNG. Unless I click on the putty window inside mRemoteNG then I go back to the beginning.

Is there a way to fix this annoying issue? Don't take me wrong, I enjoy mRemoteNG and have been using it for the past 3 years or so, but this is really annoying!

[kmscode]

From @cryptage21 #663

I've detected a bug with SSH sessions (Putty). After launching mRemoteNG, if you start a SSH connection, it's working perfectly.

To open a second connection, I click on the "connections panel" and when I want to write the name of the session, it's writing in the opened putty tab instead of selecting the name of the session in the list.

After another click on the list, that's good. With 2 or more opened tabs, it's working correctly too. The problem is only when there's only one putty session.

Could you please check this issue ? I'm using mRemoteNG 1.75 Hotfix 8.

[cimminob]

I am also experience focus issues with Putty - Solar Putty. Very annoying. I'm downloading another client

[sparerd]

I've done some work in this area recently that should finally fix any putty focus issues. Clicking/alt-tabbing is mostly working as expected now. I will update this issue once it has been merged

[cryptage21]

@sparerd : very good news ! Thank you.

[pedroeloy]

@sparerd : I really wish this issue is solved. For many years I've been using mremoteng but this issue has always been very annoying when I'm copy/pasting text between windows.

[Idanatcox]

I've tested the bug on ssh_focus branch and it works!! I'll run with this version for a few days and update if I find any issues thanks EDIT I've noticed this warning when a tab is closed, @sparerd I don't mean to bother, I'm aware that this is a WIP. if you prefer that I won't report issues let me know

----------
WarningMsg
10/16/2019 20:01:13
Failed to set external protocol window to foreground. name:'Staging-<HOSTNAME>, protocol:'SSH2', pid:18716, hwnd:200728
----------

Another issue is the Minimize button doesn't work

[aswzen]

I am sorry, any update on this?

[farosch]

@aswzen Follow #181 for any news.

[spdfnet]

I've done some work in this area recently that should finally fix any putty focus issues. Clicking/alt-tabbing is mostly working as expected now. I will update this issue once it has been merged

v1.77.1 behaves the same for those wondering.

[ryny24]

This issue was driving me crazy!!! But seems to be resolved in nightly 1.77.3.

THANK YOU!!!

[cusco]

This issue was driving me crazy!!! But seems to be resolved in nightly 1.77.3.

THANK YOU!!!

Would be nice to have someone else confirm. This means that the fix will make it into the the next release, right?

[cesarmansur]

This issue was driving me crazy!!! But seems to be resolved in nightly 1.77.3.

THANK YOU!!!

The issue is not solved in v1.77.3-nb

[cesarmansur]

This issue was driving me crazy!!! But seems to be resolved in nightly 1.77.3. THANK YOU!!!

Would be nice to have someone else confirm. This means that the fix will make it into the the next release, right?

The issue is not solved in v1.77.3-nb

[cesarmansur]

Still looking forward to this fix.

[aswzen]

Finally i have to move to other tool namely WindTerm (https://github.com/kingToolbox/WindTerm) since this alt+tab remote-ng issue has been bothering me for 6 years, even after using the latest version.. Thank you remote-ng developers for the tool, i really appreciated it 👍👍👍

[cesarmansur]

Focus issues with PuTTY are known.

This most likely isn't going to be fixable with PuTTY in use. The solution would be to replace PuTTY: #181

SuperPuTTY uses PuTTY and doesn't have this annoying issue with Alt+Tab. But I still prefer mRemoteNG over other tools. It would be great if the developers could pay a special attention to this bug and put some effort to fix it for good.