Windows 10: How to fix mouse clicks register on background window instead of the active foreground window?

I’m experiencing an issue where mouse clicks are being registered by background windows, even though the correct window is clearly in the foreground and has focus. This happens consistently across multiple games and full-screen applications.For example, I might have a game visibly in focus, but when I click, the input is sent to a window underneath it—like a chat app or browser—causing unwanted behavior. This started recently and was not an issue before.Things I’ve already triedisabling all known overlays and background appsSwitching between fullscreen, borderless, and windowed modesVerifyin

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An app is suddenly running in background instead of foreground as it should

I run Windows 10.

When I tried to start an app it suddenly started to run in the background instead of foreground as it should, as seen in the Taskmanager.

It is an "external" app and is thus not listed in the Settings-privacy- background apps list

I want to force it back to run as foreground app again.

Is it possible?

 

In Windows 10, can you make background windows not register mouse clicks used to bring them to foreground?

If you don't mind changing your mouse behavior slightly, you can enable the ability to focus on a window simply by hovering the pointer over it (no left-click necessary). This is a standard feature for Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10.

To enable this feature:

1. Go to the Control Panel and select Ease of Access.
   
2. Under the Ease of Access Center, choose "Change how your mouse works".
   
3. Look for the subheading "Make it easier to manage windows" and enable the first checkbox "Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse."
   

Left-click will still act normally (e.g start/pause videos) but it will no longer be required to bring windows to the foreground (into focus). This feature applies to all windows.

As a small note about full screen videos, you will likely need to Alt-Tab or select other windows from the Taskbar if they are covered (since there are no window edge to detect.)

But if a full screen video is playing in the background while a second window is on top of it, moving the mouse to the full screen video will bring it to the foreground (and cover any other windows as normal).

 

Windows 11 - New Windows/Apps Default to Background instead of Foreground

This has been asked a few times I'm sure. Other tips I've seen either aren't active anymore, don't work, or were never confirmed to work. I feel like I saw some setting somewhere that would let me change the default open to foreground instead of background. It's very frustrating when I'm using something like the Snipping Tool and it defaults to the background - or some small dialogue gets hidden and locks up everything.

Anyone have any tips on how to get this to revert to Windows 10 functionality? When I open an app it will sometimes default to the background instead of the foreground. Dialogue boxes and certain apps are the most consistent offenders.

Thanks,

T