In Windows XP when an application that doesn't currently have the focus wants to attract the user's attention its Taskbar item blinks. Often it blinks 3 times and then stops, which is fine. However, sometimes it just keeps blinking forever. An example of that is Firefox with a new JavaScript confirmation dialog. This is really annoying if I don't want to switch to that application just now – I basically cannot focus on anything else because of this stupid blinking thing distracting me! How do I force all apps to blink only 3 times (or X times) and then stop?
Windows – Stop a Windows XP taskbar item from blinking forever
taskbarwindowswindows-explorer
Best Answer
You can accomplish this with Tweak UI, part of Microsoft's PowerToys for Windows XP.
Download and install Tweak UI (or click here for the 64-bit version), and fire it up. Expand the General section, and click on Focus. Check the "Prevent applications from stealing focus" checkbox, and then click on "Flash taskbar button X times" (where you can set the number of times it flashes).
The default value is 3 - or at least on my computer it is :)
Here's a picture to show you exactly what I mean: