Cooper wrote about “Microsoft Attitude” where an application steals focus while you are doing something. I just experienced it inside a Microsoft Application.
I was using Visio, a fairly nice application until Microsoft made it too smart. It tries to do far too much itself so often your diagram gets all out of whack when it decides to make an adjustment based on its rules. But that’s not the point I was going to make. When I was typing a change to the page, the autosave feature started, and stole focus from my typing. Focus reverted to the last item selected on the screen, a piece of text, that was then replaced as I continued typing the new name for the page. It is a good thing undo works.
This is an excellent example of bad programming. Not only does MS steal focus from other applications, but it screws itself as well–or more accurately, it screws its own users.
Another apllication that was good but was MS’ed is Anti-Spyware/Defender. Wen it was Anti-Spyware, it was a fine program (purchased from Giant), then the “improved” it so that you couldn’t control the updates or scans as well and there was not log or report after a scan. WTF!