Windows 10 Focus Assist, grrr

[mrogers]

That Windows 10 Focus Assist is a pain in the arse, I was in the middle of a flight and all of a sudden the screen goes all black. I thought WTF? I'd turned it off just minutes ago and it just turned itself back on somehow and everything was all blacked out. There was nothing I could do to bring FSX back up, it was still running behind the black screen. I'd had this happen before and always made sure that it was disabled completely, but this really took all the cake and left me fuming and cursing unprintable F-words about Focus Assist. Seriously, because I'd set everything up pre flight checks, fueled up, GPS, etc, etc. I had to restart the PC to get rid of the black screen, what a pain, and it just really put me off.
I'd never had a problem with W10, but this is just ridiculous to have something useless called Focus Assist.

[Jafo]

Ctrl-Shift-Esc should pull up Task Manager where you can get a stupid OS to behave - without a reboot - but better yet - stay with Win 7 ...

[Daube]

Or even better, stay with Windows 10 and switch to P3D, which can be minimized, windowed or set to full screen as much as you want without crashing every second attempt

[wombat666]

Just install W7-64-Pro.

[hairyspin]

Can’t you turn it off? There are other must-have features which can be turned off or even removed, like Cortanana, but I just turn it off. Or go back to XP. Or Win95. Or DOS...

[gavinc]

Disabling Focus Assist is easy

To enable or disable focus assist on Windows 10, do the following:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on Focus assist.
4. Under "Focus assist," select one of the three options:
   
   
   • Off — Disables the feature, and you'll see the notifications from apps and contacts.
   • Priority only — The feature will only allow notifications depending on the settings you've configured on your priority list.
   • Alarms only — Suppresses all notifications while focus assist is enabled, except for alarms.

[mrogers]

I'm not going to go back to W7 anytime, or XP. Or Win95. Or DOS :-D....thanks guys for the tips.
W10 has been pretty good and stable for me. It's just this one thing called Focus Assist that drove me nuts. It can be turned off, and I've always done that every time I turn on my PC to disable it and that has worked without a problem although on the odd occasion after turning it off, when simming the screen will go black momentarily and then the sim reappears. Happens once in a while.
I dont know why Microsoft put that useless Focus Assist there, it appeared after the last W10 upgrade. Maybe at the next upgrade it will be removed....

[ncooper]

Hello,
are you sure that your problem is connected to Focus Assist?
It seems to be no more than a means to inhibit notifications.
I have left it set to off and simply switched all the notifications off.

[gavinc]

Re-reading this i have to agree with Nick.
I don't think your screen going black has anything to do with Focus Assist.

Check your screen or power settings. Perhaps your screen is going black as a result of power saving settings (Win 10 is really optimized for laptops and mobile devices and there are a bunch of things that are really useless on a desktop).

Also what do you mean by "I'd turned it off just minutes ago and it just turned itself back on somehow and everything was all blacked out."?

Gavin

[Jafo]

(Win 10 is really optimized for laptops and mobile devices and there are a bunch of things that are really useless on a desktop).


Gavin

Yes, the OS itself ....
Its GUI was specifically intended for a mobile platform .... that is ... tablet/mobile phone....
....and how's that Windows phone going these days?
Did it ever get to double digits market-share before it sank back to obscurity? ...

[Priller]

Yes, the OS itself ....
Its GUI was specifically intended for a mobile platform .... that is ... tablet/mobile phone....
....and how's that Windows phone going these days?
Did it ever get to double digits market-share before it sank back to obscurity? ...

Oh please. Comparing apples and pears. Windows 10 is a good OS, you just need to master it, just like you had to master Win7, win8.x, ...

Bottom line is that support for Windows 7 ends next year.

it's very simple really: either you go with the flow, or start getting used to Linux and/or iOS.

priller

[Bjoern]

On Windows 10, FSX is best run in windowed mode with BG* used to blow it up to fullscreen size.


* https://github.com/Codeusa/Borderless-Gaming/releases


And Windows Phone is awesome. I'm finally part of the 1%!

[hairyspin]

And Windows Phone is awesome. I'm finally part of the 1%!

Bjoern, you'll be thought seriously weird should you advertise such uncool heresy – nothing new there! But I have to say, if my work-supplied phone was still a Windows Phone, I'd be perfectly happy. The management thought differently and pushed us all to the Dark Side last year.

[Jafo]

Oh please. Comparing apples and pears. Windows 10 is a good OS, you just need to master it, just like you had to master Win7, win8.x, ...

Bottom line is that support for Windows 7 ends next year.

it's very simple really: either you go with the flow, or start getting used to Linux and/or iOS.

priller

If Win 10 was a 'good OS' one of it's core features would be guaranteed to work - always....
Win 10 on my laptop [in particular] has an 'Edge' that dies about a second after you ever try to launch it.
Now, all those FORCED UPDATES [yes, it's fun being an alpha tester] can't return it to functional.

Exactly how many Redmond heads have actually rolled since Win 8, 8.1 and 10?

'Mastering it' means using Stardock's software, ie. 'Start10' to restore sensible functionality, and killing much of the background junk such as being a background data server [just like a Torrent] for dissemination of the OS and it's updates.
Oh, and Win 7 support was SUPPOSED TO end in 2015.... but had to be extended due to the opposite of 'lack of interest' and actual [and only currently] end date is Jan, 2020, not 'next year'.
You can expect that to be extended further....

[Priller]

If Win 10 was a 'good OS' one of it's core features would be guaranteed to work - always....
Win 10 on my laptop [in particular] has an 'Edge' that dies about a second after you ever try to launch it.
Now, all those FORCED UPDATES [yes, it's fun being an alpha tester] can't return it to functional.

Exactly how many Redmond heads have actually rolled since Win 8, 8.1 and 10?

'Mastering it' means using Stardock's software, ie. 'Start10' to restore sensible functionality, and killing much of the background junk such as being a background data server [just like a Torrent] for dissemination of the OS and it's updates.
Oh, and Win 7 support was SUPPOSED TO end in 2015.... but had to be extended due to the opposite of 'lack of interest' and actual [and only currently] end date is Jan, 2020, not 'next year'.
You can expect that to be extended further....

No, mastering Windows 10 is getting to know it, learning to undertand it. Of course, if you insist on using dated software like Windows 10 and FSX, be my guest. It's like those people who still insist on using Win98 and XP.

And if you borked your Windows 10 install, you can always do a clean install and start afresh. Or are you part of the Windows insider program where you do get the alpha's?

Priller

[Jafo]

No, mastering Windows 10 is getting to know it, learning to undertand it. Of course, if you insist on using dated software like Windows 10 and FSX, be my guest. It's like those people who still insist on using Win98 and XP.

And if you borked your Windows 10 install, you can always do a clean install and start afresh. Or are you part of the Windows insider program where you do get the alpha's?

Priller

I have 'mastered' Microsoft's OS's since Dos 3. I've been involved with GUI design/using GUI mods since Dos, and have a competent understanding of Shell strengths/failings. Much of 10 is a backward step from 7, requiring more complications to get from A to B thus making the entire process less intuitive and actually counter-productive.
Works OK for dirty-fingers-on-screens but NOT for actual workstation functionality.
You can ignore the concept of 'insider program' as that merely puts everything MORE wobbly than the general public rollout has to cope with.
[and yes, for years I was a Technet subscriber] ...

[AussieMan]

I have been using Windows 10 from the early Alpha releases (I am a Windows Insider) and have had no problems with the so-called black screen.

If you look in the botom right of your monitor next to the clock you will see a dialog box. click on than and hen All Settings. Once the settings window is open click on System/Power and Sleep. Once there you will see 2 drop down menus. One is to turn off the monitor after a certain time. The other puts the computer to sleep after a certain time also. Click on "Never" for both. This should stop your black screens.

These settings rely on mouse movements to keep the computer active. If you are in a flight sim and doing a flight and you are on auto pilot where you may not have to have any mouse input for an hour or so depending on those settings the monitor will turn off after whatever default time is set. the same for putting the computer to sleep.

Hoping this will be of some help.

[mrogers]

It does seem to me now that something else, not Focus Assist (which was turned off at the time), is causing the momentary black screen. I was using the mouse when it happened, so it may not have anything to do with the power settings, which I've checked, the monitor is set to turn off after 5 minutes of inactivity, and the computer set to never, but it has never gone to sleep on me while simmimg.

Gavin wanted to know what I meant when I said, "I'd turned it off just minutes ago and it just turned itself back on somehow and everything was all blacked out."?
What happened then is that in the middle of simming, I remembered that I'd forgotten to turn off Focus assist, so went to turn that off and then I carried on simming. I had the sim running in full screen mode so when I went to turn off Focus Assist I had to go into windowed mode. Then returned to full screen mode afterwards which I always have the sim in.
I thought and maybe wrongly assumed the Focus Assist must have turned itself back on somehow when the sim went all black not long afterwards, as it has interrupted simming before when it was on. I could hear the sim running behind it but I couldn't bring it back in view or close it. The Windows button on the keyboard was working though and popping up in front of the black screen. so from there I restarted the computer.

At that time I was flying the A2A Accusim P-51D when these black screens happened. It's the main plane I fly at the moment and these black screens happen when fly it. I havent flown any other plane so I haven't checked to see if that happens when flying a different plane..

I don't know if it's the 2gb Geforce GTX 960 graphics card?