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exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 161 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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This has only hit a few machines out of millions and is difficult to pin down...the person in post #157 is with support so hopefully he will respond soon.

​ can you comment please?

---

Peter

Moderator

jameskyker
Former Member
Message 162 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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Hello. I gave up on this, and I switched to another virus scanner (paid).

Please note, before I switched:

1. I often lost focus in the window I was typing.

2. Another program that runs in the task tray constantly had taskbar issues and would cause the taskbar to pop-up. (I auto-hide the taskbar.) That was the more annoying than #1.

Now that I have switched to another virus scanner. I have none of the above issues.

Akorax
Contributor
Message 163 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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The above seems to be the final solution to the problem. The issue has existed with this McAfee product since 2012 according to when people started posting about it. Now it is SIX years later and it still hasn't been fixed. It's very understandable that the average user does not discover this because of the low frequency of focus loss. Still it's terrible that the issue has not been adressed yet. By this time one could wonder if it's really a bug or if it was intended from the start by the company.

Krush
Contributor
Message 164 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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It's been an issue for longer than that, here's a post from 2010 of someone reporting it and never getting a response, and here's from 6 days ago another user reporting it.

And I'm also now reporting it as I finally identified that McUICnt.exe is the culprit that has been plaguing me with this issue for years (across multiple machines I've used McAfee on).

If uninstalling McAfee is the issue I'll just start telling everyone that complains about this issue for that to be their first step, and then your millions of installs with no issue will probably quickly drop.

So we're all on the same page here is the results from Window Focus Logger:

Time                 Process name  Off screen  Keyboard focus  User interface  Mainwindow title
15/08/2018 06:45:31  notepad       False       True            True            Untitled - Notepad
15/08/2018 06:45:30  McUICnt       True        True            True            
15/08/2018 03:45:44  WinStore.App  True        False           True            Microsoft Store
15/08/2018 03:45:32  notepad       False       True            True            Untitled - Notepad
15/08/2018 03:45:31  McUICnt       True        True            True            
15/08/2018 03:41:20  notepad       False       True            True            Untitled - Notepad

As you can clearly see McUICnt takes focus for a brief moment every 3 hours then returns it to the previous window (and in this example WinStore.App takes focus at one point but it isn't stealing keyboard focus which seems to the main difference and thus doesn't take pull the user away from the active window.

 

unnybay
Contributor
Message 165 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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I am having the same problem as all of you... had to install a process monitor and focus to find out that it was McUICnt.exe that was stealing the focus. I had it happen on the system that I have been using for work to test how McAfee works. Unfortunately for McAfee, this issue just cost them 1,200 licenses as I just recommended to my corporate technical board that we do not switch from KAV to McAfee and that we find a different product.

Stealing focus is annoying, having it happen for an extended period and apparently having their engineering department ignore the issue is a pretty good indication that they would not add value to our company

 

AntumDeluge
Contributor
Message 166 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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I too am having this issue on Windows 10. I use the free Window Focus Logger to verify that it is McUICnt stealing focus. My HP Pavilion came pre-installed with McAfee LiveSafe. Just wanted to add to the list of reports. I plan on switching to a different antivirus/firewall/suite.

Currently installed versions:

  • LiveSafe: 16.0 R16
  • SecurityCenter: 17.6.149
  • VirusScan: 22.1.145
  • Personal Firewall: 18.6.144
  • Anti-Spam: 18.6.142
  • Parental Controls: 19.6.140
  • QuickClean and Shredder: 17.6.138
  • Vulnerability Scanner: 7.6.104
Tags (2)
JohnGregory
Contributor
Message 167 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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Same as the rest of you. I used a focus monitor to see McUICnt.exe stealing focus. I can't believe this is still an issue.

Are we just sh*t out of luck at this point? Is there a patch? Has anyone heard from official McAfee support?

Thanks,
Ben
AntumDeluge
Contributor
Message 168 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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I switched to Comodo Internet Security. Haven't had focus stealing issues since.

JohnGregory
Contributor
Message 169 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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Thanks, I turned off access protection and resaved McUICnt.exe with junk in it. That killed the GUI but it stopped stealing focus, lol. Then I upgraded/reinstalled and changed a lot of settings, like "Ask me about the firewall" instead of doing it automatically. I was trying to get rid of anything that might be popping up invisibly and changing the focus. I haven't seen it happen since then, so perhaps it is a bad setting or a bad install. IT would be nice if we had a solid answer over the last decade, LOL.
Akorax
Contributor
Message 170 of 170

Re: McUICnt.exe steals the current windows focus every 3 hours. How can I stop this?

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After 11 years of subscription I feel like a fool for not changing to another antivirus provider earlier considering how long this issue has been present. Byebye McAfee, you're welcome to contact me if you ever get down to fixing this issue (if it happens within my lifetime that is).

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