# Raise windows on focus - change setting?

**URL:** <https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526>\
**Category:** Budgie Desktop\
**Created:** [May 5, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526 "2020-05-05T09:01:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 17\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BFG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@BFG](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/BFG)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/1 "2020-05-05T09:01:56Z")

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Still finding my feet with budgie 😀

I do like the option to have the focus follow my mouse pointer. And I can see “Enable window focus change on mouse enter and leave”.

But it also forces the focused window to come to the front as if I have clicked it. Is there a way to turn that off please? I often work with overlapping windows, and they start dancing forward while my mouse is on its way to the actual one I want. 🙂

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**Author:** ![fossfreedom](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/fossfreedom/32/1405_2.png) [@fossfreedom](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/fossfreedom)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 10:24am UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/2 "2020-05-05T10:24:54Z")

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Umm… I don’t understand. Follow focus does just that … ensures the window your cursor is over is raised and has focus.

Anyway … technically all that option does is turn on the follow focus option in the GNOME window manager called mutter.

So what you are seeing is the follow focus implementation by the GNOME devs.

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**Author:** ![Coeur-Noir](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/coeur-noir/32/4515_2.png) [@Coeur-Noir](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/Coeur-Noir)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/3 "2020-05-05T17:34:51Z")

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If I remind correctly the follow focus done through compiz offered a delay setting before raising.

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**Author:** ![fossfreedom](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/fossfreedom/32/1405_2.png) [@fossfreedom](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/fossfreedom)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/4 "2020-05-05T17:41:50Z")

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Really? Maybe a useful suggestion to the mutter devs on gitlab

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**Author:** ![Coeur-Noir](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/coeur-noir/32/4515_2.png) [@Coeur-Noir](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/Coeur-Noir)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/5 "2020-05-05T17:49:04Z")

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Who will dare suggesting gnome dev’s to add a feature ?

But yes the delay setting was available through Compiz Config Settings Management, typically the kind of UI gnome dev’s try to avoid ( and it’s rather understandable ).

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**Author:** ![fossfreedom](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/fossfreedom/32/1405_2.png) [@fossfreedom](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/fossfreedom)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/6 "2020-05-05T17:53:29Z")

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Typically gnome devs like to hide things away in gsettings. Then something like gnome tweaks would expose the setting

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**Author:** ![Coeur-Noir](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/coeur-noir/32/4515_2.png) [@Coeur-Noir](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/Coeur-Noir)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 6:05pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/7 "2020-05-05T18:05:08Z")

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Or maybe it’s already there ?  
`org.gnome.mutter focus-change-on-pointer-rest false`  
what happens if set to true ?

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**Author:** ![fossfreedom](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/fossfreedom/32/1405_2.png) [@fossfreedom](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/fossfreedom)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/8 "2020-05-05T18:11:49Z")

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Sounds interesting. Does the dconf description help here for that key?

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**Author:** ![Coeur-Noir](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/coeur-noir/32/4515_2.png) [@Coeur-Noir](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/Coeur-Noir)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/9 "2020-05-05T18:21:11Z")

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Yes it helps :

_Si défini à true et que le mode de focus est soit « sloppy » ou « souris », alors le focus ne sera pas changé immédiatement en passant sur une fenêtre, mais seulement après que le pointeur s’arrête._

If set to true and if focus-mode is either « sloppy » or « mouse » then focus won’t be raised immediately on window hovering, but only after pointer rests.

Side note, _focus_ appears in many places in dconf :

 ![focus](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/uploads/ubuntubudgie/original/2X/0/0eb0123c44153ac184a0b851217cd58bba52cebe.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BFG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@BFG](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/BFG)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 10:18am UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/10 "2020-05-08T10:18:43Z")

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![XFCE window behaviour 2020-05-08 11-07](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/uploads/ubuntubudgie/original/2X/c/c6b6977c8a921177cf2fa8be4c07804f05af5d54.gif)

I’m not making a feature request, just showing that fine control over behaviours is something I find very appealing.

I find that having windows not raising unless I specifically click in the toolbar is very desirable for the way I work. This is possible in XFCE. I like it because the keyboard follows focus too, and often I will want to type in a window that I want to be my keyboard focus, but not my “human” focus. I just want it to get on with things in the background. Chatting while watching a vid. Screen sharing a window with lockdown buddies while using other apps to drive the session. Day to day working where I might have 2 or 3 term windows, etc.

Again, not a feature request, just sharing.

Attached is a gif of this control in XFCE, where I run through a few scenarios. This first is the one I’m referring to. The rest show the delay settings for interest, which I don’t use that much.

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**Author:** ![fossfreedom](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/fossfreedom/32/1405_2.png) [@fossfreedom](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/fossfreedom)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 10:25am UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/11 "2020-05-08T10:25:08Z")

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Feature requests like this needs to be made here

> **[Issues · GNOME / mutter](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/issues)**
>
> Welcome to GNOME’s integrated development platform, powered by GitLab

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Coeur-Noir](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/coeur-noir/32/4515_2.png) [@Coeur-Noir](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/Coeur-Noir)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/12 "2020-05-08T17:22:50Z")

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It’s not exactly the same but have you tried the _focus-change-on-pointer-rest_ ?

You also may play with `org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences raise-on-click` :

> The default, true, indicates that a window will be raised whenever its client area or its frame is clicked. Setting this to false means that a window will not be raised if it is clicked on the client area. To raise it, one can click anywhere in the window’s frame, or Super-click on any part of the window. This mode is useful if one uses many overlapping windows.

\*Forget about `org.cinnamon.desktop.wm.preferences raise-on-click` where you can read that very funny description : \*

> Setting this option to false can lead to buggy behavior, so users are strongly discouraged from changing it from the default of true. Many actions (e.g. clicking in the client area, moving or resizing the window) normally raise the window as a side-effect. Setting this option to false, which is strongly discouraged, will decouple raising from other user actions, and ignore raise requests generated by applications. See [Bug 445447 – Application-induced window raise fails when raise\_on\_click off](http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=445447#c6). Even when this option is false, windows can still be raised by an alt-left-click anywhere on the window, a normal click on the window decorations, or by special messages from pagers, such as activation requests from tasklist applets. This option is currently disabled in click-to-focus mode. Note that the list of ways to raise windows when raise-on-click is false does not include programmatic requests from applications to raise windows; such requests will be ignored regardless of the reason for the request. If you are an application developer and have a user complaining that your application does not work with this setting disabled, tell them it is -their- fault for breaking their window manager and that they need to change this option back to true or live with the “bug” they requested.

_I assume ↑ this one has no effect in UbuntuBudgie._

@fossfreedom isn’t it weird there are some kinds of duplicates regarding windows management ( focus, raise… ) between `org.gnome.mutter` and `org.cinnamon.desktop.wm` ?

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**Author:** ![fossfreedom](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/fossfreedom/32/1405_2.png) [@fossfreedom](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/fossfreedom)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/13 "2020-05-08T17:32:53Z")

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If you look at the history of the two projects I think it makes sense. Cinnamon forked mutter at a very early stage a few years ago. They haven’t had the man power to bring up their version to resolve all these issues.

GNOME devs have been continually evolving their window manager and in this area they have tidied things up to be workable.

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**Author:** ![Coeur-Noir](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/coeur-noir/32/4515_2.png) [@Coeur-Noir](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/Coeur-Noir)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/14 "2020-05-08T17:44:57Z")

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Ok. What I don’t understand is why those `org.cinnamon.desktop.wm` are in dconf-editor in UbuntuBudgie _if_ they are not relevant ( Budgie uses mutter as wm, right ? ).

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**Author:** ![fossfreedom](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/fossfreedom/32/1405_2.png) [@fossfreedom](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/fossfreedom)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2020, 5:46pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/15 "2020-05-08T17:46:28Z")

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It’s because those schemas are strangely delivered as part of nemo … not the cinnamon window manager. Yes… agree … very odd.

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**Author:** ![hute37](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/hute37/32/2978_2.png) [@hute37](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/hute37)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/16 "2020-11-28T15:35:24Z")

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It’s traditional “sloppy-focus” without “auto-raise”  
To enable, use “Gnome Tweaks”, under “windows” not “Mouse”

 ![Screenshot from 2020-11-28 16-30-57](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/uploads/ubuntubudgie/original/2X/7/7d4eb2beb8d5c1bafdbe27ef6d2189cdaa3d9ec2.png)

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**Author:** ![CaptainMorgan12](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/captainmorgan12/32/4883_2.png) [@CaptainMorgan12](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/u/CaptainMorgan12)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://discourse.ubuntubudgie.org/t/raise-windows-on-focus-change-setting/3526/17 "2024-10-03T14:40:02Z")

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> [@hute37](#):
>
> Gnome Tweaks

Gnome Tweaks \> Windows \> Focus on Hover does the trick thank you so much for pointing that out. I had it installed, but really did not know what it does. Also you could toggle the “Raise Windows When Focused” though depends on your preferences.

Focus on Hover gets rid of one mouse / touch pad click and hence makes the Ubuntu UX experience more intuitive. Plus then you don’t feel like you have to worry about where you click in a window to focus it, which i do subconsciously (click to focus I do not click on the cancel button or save for example since I don’t necessarily know if the window is already in focus).