Windows Player Won't stay Topped, lose focus for control

Plex Players Desktop Players
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Continuing issue for years - Plex on PC (laptop) running both server and player. Player in TV mode for general viewing on home distribution matrix. Control by central AV integration via FLIRC IR adapter in USB port emulating a keyboard. Periodically control is lost, requiring opening player laptop and tapping the mouse to return Windows focus to the player… then all is well. For days or weeks. I suspect that windows update or other unmanaged alerts/pops/windows are appearing below the player window and stealing focus. Yes, the setting for ALWAYS ON TOP is set ON in the player settings menu, and it does visually remain on top… but USB keyboard control is lost until a mouse click on the player full page window. Any thoughts? This is driving my family crazy as they much prefer the PC player operation to that in ROKU or APPLETV, which of course continue to work while the PC is looking away.

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This does sound like an issue with something else becoming the “active window” stealing the spotlight from Plex. Could be an alert or pop-up or could just be another background application. Just because a Window is always on top doesn’t mean it will always be the active window and this isn’t something the devs would likely be able to fix.

I’d suggest looking into AutoHotKey. Using it you could create a script that watches for keyboard commands and when triggered it sends commands to a specific window even if it isn’t active.

I believe ControlSend is the main feature you’d need to use.
ControlSend

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Thanks Steve, your suggestion is the first offered on this issue in 3 years. And it sounds like exactly what I need… I’ll be trying to set it up shortly and will get back here to report on the results.

(EDIT) Looks like more scripting than I am ready for… and getting in and out of the window redirect for maintenance looks like it will confuse… but this put me onto making a macro right in windows to make my own keyboard equivalent to a mouse click. This is likely to be painless and transparent…

Since the Plex window is already full screen, and a simple single tap on the mouse pad restores control. I should be able to create a keypress to run the click macro once each time PLEX is selected for control from my integrated AV control system… so it should be invisible and always get control every time it is selected. Again, I’ll post my findings.

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