Nothing takes your keyboard. While you type or play, Staypaw puts focus back where it belongs.

Windows lets apps pull focus to themselves: a chat popup, an installer, a browser an agent is driving. Your next keypress lands in the wrong window, sometimes on its default button. Space has cancelled a Visual Studio install, and Esc has killed a Bluetooth transfer. PowerToys #65 has asked for a fix since 2019.

Install

Download staypaw-setup-win-x64.exe from the latest release and run it. It installs for you alone, without admin rights, and starts Staypaw in your tray, then again each time you sign in.

SmartScreen may call it an unrecognized app until enough people have run it. Under More info, it names Hazel Granados as the publisher: that's the signature on every release.

• Updates: an installed copy updates itself from GitHub Releases. It restarts into a new version once your protected app isn't in front, and the tray menu turns this off.
• No installer: unzip staypaw-portable-win-x64.zip anywhere and run Staypaw.exe. It never updates itself. It starts at sign-in from that folder, so turn off Start with Windows in its tray menu before you move or delete it.
• Checksums: each release's SHA256SUMS lists both files.
• Uninstall: from Settings › Apps › Installed apps.

Before and after

You're…	Something takes focus	Without Staypaw	With Staypaw
typing in your editor	a chat popup	your next words go into the chat	focus comes straight back, and the keys you typed land in your editor
typing a password	a background app's window	your password goes into that window, and you have to change it	focus comes straight back, and your password lands where you were typing
coding while an agent tests in a browser	the browser opens a page, every few seconds	the browser keeps jumping in front, and your keys go into it	focus comes straight back every time, because an agent started the browser
crafting in a game, hands off the keyboard	an agent's browser opens a page	the game loses focus	the game keeps focus, because an agent started the browser
playing a match	a work chat message	the game loses focus mid-match	focus goes back to the game, and keys pressed meanwhile are dropped, never replayed into it
pressing Space	an installer with a Cancel button	the install is cancelled	the key never reaches the installer

From reports in PowerToys #65, Playwright #41306 and chrome-devtools-mcp #2856.

What it does

• Protects an app you pick. Nothing takes focus from it unless you click or Alt+Tab away, even while you're idle.
• Keeps focus where you're typing.
• Keeps coding agents off your keyboard. A window that claude.exe or codex.exe started (Claude Code, the Claude app or Codex), or a browser Playwright installed, never keeps focus it takes, even while you're idle. You can still click or Alt+Tab to it.
• Holds stray keys. A key you press during a steal never reaches the app that stole focus. It goes to your window once focus is back, or is dropped if that window is a game.
• Tells you which app did it, in a log you can open.
• Installs signed, for you alone, without admin rights.

Using it

Right-click the paw in your tray. From there you can:

• protect the app you were just in;
• pause Staypaw for 15 minutes, as Ctrl+Shift+Alt+P does from anywhere, even in a game, and the paw stays grey until the pause ends or you resume;
• see which app took focus last, and which takes it most;
• turn Start with Windows and automatic updates off or on;
• open the focus log, which lists every focus change and what Staypaw did about it.

The trust contract

Staypaw watches your keyboard, so it has to be easy to trust.

• Nothing injected. Staypaw never loads code into another app, and never touches a game's process. Its keyboard hook is the low-level kind, which runs inside Staypaw itself.
• No telemetry. The only network call is the update check, which asks GitHub Releases for a newer version and sends nothing else. The tray menu turns it off. If Staypaw crashes, it shows you its crash report at the next launch, and the report leaves your PC only if you file it on GitHub or email it yourself. The code that sees your keys can't reach the network: a test fails if it references the updater or any networking code.
• No keys stored. It keeps the time of each keypress, never the key. Keys held during a steal stay in memory for a moment, then go to your window or are dropped. They never go to a game. Nothing about them is written to disk.
• Open source, so you can check all of this instead of trusting it.

Alternatives

Checked against each project's own docs on 2026-10-21.

	Staypaw 1.0	NoFocusSteal 1.3.2	Windhawk mod 1.0.2	FocusLogger 1.3.12
Stops steals	after they happen, then puts focus back	after they happen, then puts focus back	before they happen, for the apps you list	no, it logs them
Injects into other apps	no	no	yes, into every process by default	no
Protects one app while you're idle	yes	Strict mode, for every app at once	you list the stealers instead	no
A key typed during a steal	held, never reaches the stealer	can land in the stealer (up to 1 in 185 keys in its own test)	none land	n/a
Signed, on winget	signed, not on winget yet	not signed, not on winget	not checked	signed

Pick NoFocusSteal if you want every app protected at once: its Strict mode does that. Pick the Windhawk mod if you know which apps steal focus and don't mind injection: it stops a steal before any key lands, which a tool that reacts afterwards can't promise. Pick FocusLogger if you only want to know which app it is.

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Open work and decisions are in ROADMAP.md.

License

Apache-2.0. Calla, the cat-eared homebody in this README, was drawn with an AI image model and is Apache-2.0 like the code. Hand-drawn art of her by @wrenishacking is on the way.