Question: My program pops up a window every time the user presses F2 (in any application). I'm using pynput to capture the F2 button (works ok) I'm using tkinter to create the popup window (works ok) I'm using win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(windowHandel) to bring the tkinter window to the front and set the focus. And there is the problem. If the python windows is selected when I press F2, everything works ok, and the tkinter window both moves to front and gets focus. BUT - if any other window is selected when I press F2, the tkinter window does moves to the front, but it is not selected (i.e. focused). Here is the relevant section from the code (find full code below): while not windowFound and counter < MAX_TRIES_TO_FIND_THE_FLIPPER_WINDOW: try: windowHandel = win32gui.FindWindow(None, windowName) win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(windowHandel) except: windowFound = False else: print("Success, Window found on the " + str(counter + 1) + " tries") windowFound = True  After looking for an answer for a while, I found someone saying that this can be solved by using win32process. So I tried adding: windowHandelID, _ = win32process.GetWindowThreadProcessId(windowHandel) win32process.AttachThreadInput(win32api.GetCurrentThreadId(), windowHandelID, True) win32gui.SetFocus(windowHandel)  Yet, it resulted in the same behavior. Here below is the full (simplified, without exit conditions) code. Try pressing F2 while pythong is focused. And then try pressing F2 while any other window (e.g. notepad) is focused. You'll see that in one case you can just start writing and the tkinter window will receive the input while in the other case, you'll still have to click the window. I'd appreciate any help or suggestions. import pyautogui # For keyboard shortcuts and moving the cursor and selecting the window import time # For the delay function from pynput import keyboard # For catching keyboard strokes import tkinter # GUI import threading # For Threading import win32gui # For Setting Focus on the Flipper Window import win32process import win32api # Resetting Variables / Settings start_flipping_text_sequence = False ContinueThreads = True SearchForFlipperWindow = False window_name = "tk" MAX_TRIES_TO_FIND_THE_FLIPPER_WINDOW = 10 # This function runs in a separate thread def selectFlipperWindow(windowName): # Since the thread runs constantly, it will only start looking for the flipper window when this variable is True global SearchForFlipperWindow # How many loops should the program go through before it gives up on finding the window global MAX_TRIES_TO_FIND_THE_FLIPPER_WINDOW # While program was not ended while True: # This is False, unless F2 is pressed if SearchForFlipperWindow: # Did the program find the flipper window windowFound = False counter = 0 while not windowFound and counter < MAX_TRIES_TO_FIND_THE_FLIPPER_WINDOW: try: windowHandel = win32gui.FindWindow(None, windowName) win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(windowHandel) except: windowFound = False else: print("Success, Window found on the " + str(counter + 1) + " tries") windowHandelID, _ = win32process.GetWindowThreadProcessId(windowHandel) win32process.AttachThreadInput(win32api.GetCurrentThreadId(), windowHandelID, True) win32gui.SetFocus(windowHandel) windowFound = True counter += 1 time.sleep(0.1) SearchForFlipperWindow = False time.sleep(0.1) # Execute functions based on the clicked key def on_press(key): global start_flipping_text_sequence # If the user pressed the F2 key if key == keyboard.Key.f2: start_flipping_text_sequence = True def okButton(): root.destroy() def enter(event): okButton() # Assigning event to function listener = keyboard.Listener(on_press=on_press) # initiating listener listener.start() # Start a thread for searching for the flipper window selectWindowThread = threading.Thread(target=selectFlipperWindow, args=(window_name,)) selectWindowThread.start() while 1 == 1: time.sleep(.05) if start_flipping_text_sequence: SearchForFlipperWindow = True root = tkinter.Tk() tk_window_input = tkinter.Entry(root, width=100) tk_window_input.pack(padx=20) tk_window_input.focus() # Binds the OK button to the okButton function above tk_window_ok = tkinter.Button(root, width=20, text="OK", command=okButton) tk_window_ok.pack(pady=20) # Binds the "Enter" keyboard key to the "enter" event above tk_window_input.bind('<Return>', enter) # the main looper of the tkinter window # runs until root.destroy() to executed above root.mainloop() start_flipping_text_sequence = False ``` 

Answer: What you see is an intentional restriction in Windows. The restriction is described by Raymond Chen in article Foreground activation permission is like love: You can’t steal it, it has to be given to you. Remarks section of the SetForegroundWindow documentation gives more technical details about the restriction. There are ways to be exempt from the restriction. One good way to do so is described by Raymond Chen in article Pressing a registered hotkey gives you the foreground activation love. The following code shows one more, strange way to bypass the restriction: kbd.press(keyboard.Key.alt) try: win32gui.SetForegroundWindow(windowHandel) finally: kbd.release(keyboard.Key.alt)  where kbd was created like this: from pynput.keyboard import Controller kbd = Controller()  Here is an explanation why this workaround works: link. A good way to get rid of this workaround may be to require a user to press Alt-F2 in order to switch to your application. Good luck with coding ;-)