Focus a batch-started application - windows

Question

I am running a sequence of applications from a batch script and I want to make sure, that the opened program will always be in focus.
We need to ensure this because it's an experimental setup and we want to minimise such hassles as having to change focus to a fullscreen window.
This problem already occurred infrequently when the earlier program exits and for a moment the desktop is visible and the user clicks on some icon on the desktop, and right after that, the next program in the sequence is being processed, the new window is not in focus.
The problem has become much more frequent now that I hid the command window from view.
Any way to force focus for the next program in the sequence, be it a batch command, some settings for the OS (we're on Win XP) or a helper app could be helpful.

Answer 1

If you want to focus another program you can do this.
call focus WindowTitle
exit /b
:focus
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
if ["%~1"] equ [""] (
echo Please give the window's title.
exit /b
)
set pr=%~1
set pr=!pr:"=!
echo CreateObject("wscript.shell").appactivate "!pr!" > "%tmp%\focus.vbs"
call "%tmp%\focus.vbs"
del "%tmp%\focus.vbs"
goto :eof
endlocal
I am using vbscript to focus the application.
You need to pass the window's title, not the window's name (whatever.bat).
To make sure you get the right window focused you can set its title.
example:
title WindowTitle

Answer 2

if i got it right, start /f yourapp.exe would start the application in foreground.

Answer 3

Yaron answer will work but would prefer not to create a temp file to execute the script but to embed the code in the batch directly. Or to use jscript which is also part of windows script host and is easier for embedding into batch
Here's a focusOn.batenter link description here that will set the focus on an application based on starting string of the title (will not create temp files which will make it a little bit faster):
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end /* JScript comment
#echo off
cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0" %*
exit /b %errorlevel%
#if (#X)==(#Y) #end JScript comment */
var ARGS=WScript.Arguments;
if (ARGS.Length < 1 ) {
WScript.Echo("No window title passed");
WScript.Quit(1);
}
var sh=new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
if(!sh.AppActivate(ARGS.Item(0))){
WScript.Echo("Cannot find an app with window name starting with: " + ARGS.Item(0));
}
Example usage:
call focusOn.bat Untitled
which should put on focus the notepad (it its title is still "Untitled - Notepad")