Remove That Unsightly Focus Rectangle in Windows XP or Vista
After a number of readers have written in about how to remove the dotted black outline that sometimes appears when you make a file selection, I realized that I needed to write this up for everybody’s benefit, since there actually is a solution.
In case you aren’t sure what we’re talking about, if you select an icon with the keyboard’s arrow keys and then click somewhere else, you’ll see a dotted line show up around the icon:
The same thing will sometimes happen in other areas, like tree controls. Note that this picture is from the original author over at Neowin.
To solve this problem, we’ll use a small utility called the Universal Focus Rectangle Remover, which unfortunately only works on 32-bit Windows (XP or Vista).
Installation
You’ll want to download and extract the zipped file, and then copy the RemoveFocusRect.dll file into the System32 directory, usually located at the following path:
C:\Windows\System32
You’ll get a message saying that access is denied, but you should be able to copy the file after clicking through the prompts.
Next you’ll need to open up an administrator mode command prompt, and then run the following command to register the DLL file with Windows:
regsvr32 RemoveFocusRect.dll
You should get a message saying that the registration succeeded. If you get an error, there’s a good chance you are running on 64-bit and it just won’t work. If so, make sure to delete the file that you copied.
Once you reboot the computer, you’ll see that the rectangle is now gone:
Uninstalling
Open up an administrator mode command prompt like before, and type in the following command to uninstall the component from the registry (very important). Note: You’ll have to be in the \Windows\system32 directory for it to work, but that’s the default path for an administrator mode command prompt anyway.
regsvr32 /u RemoveFocusRect.dll
You should get a message saying that it has been successfully removed. Now you can delete the file simply with this command:
del RemoveFocusRect.dll
You’ll need to restart your computer to remove the tweak.
Download Focus Rectangle Remover from neowin.net
Download Focus Rectangle Remover (Mirror Copy) from howtogeek.com
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As usual, great stuff here.
One thing I’d like to do is actually increase the focus rectangle when tabbing thru websites. I try not to ever use the mouse and many times just seeing the rectangle as it goes from link to link is hard. Especially now I’m a bit older.
Any tips or ideas on how this can be done?
Man I love you!! I made a post in the forum about this…Cheers!
Just read it doesn’t work in 64-bit Vista. -.-
when trying to register the dll I get the message “The module RemoveFocusRect.dll was loaded but the call to DllregisterServer failed with error code 0×80004005″. I’m 100% sure I’m running a 32bit of Vista. any idea?
@Thomas
I’m betting that your system is missing one of the redistributable C++ components or something… I’ll have to check into it.
This has drove me crazy for yrs.
All i can say is the program works & thank you.
Huh. I never had the focus rectangle in vista?
will this also get rid of the focus rectangle you get when you click on the name of a tab in Firefox?
@Thomas
I had the same problem, just run your command prompt in admin mode and it’ll work. I read this article at first and it’s in the instruction, just not clearly written. The readme.txt is more specific^^
I have never had that rectangle around my icons either. I just get a blue box.
cool john, thanks it worked.
I launched CMD as admin and it registered the Dll without any issue…
Why did you not just copy/rewrite these EASIER orginal insturctions?
Installation:
1. Put RemoveFocusRect in your system32 directory.
2. Click Start and select Run.
3. Type “regsvr32 RemoveFocusRect.dll” (without the quotes) and press OK.
4. Next time a program is started, it won’t have focus rectangles.
Note: In Windows Vista, all those steps should be done with administrative privileges.
Uninstallation:
2. Click Start and select Run.
3. Type “regsvr32 /u RemoveFocusRect.dll” (without the quotes) and press OK.
1. Restart your computer.
4. Delete RemoveFocusRect from your system32 directory.
Note: In Windows Vista, all those steps should be done with administrative privileges.
Great work – thanks!
there is nothing unsightly or ugly about focus indication UI changes. They make computer usage much more meaningful for those who are not highly dextrous and/or computer savvy.
Easy and straightforward, does nothing at all.
Have you noticed that using this gets rid of the ability to select multiple files using the different methods like Shift…Shift, Ctl.Ctl, dragging the box around a group of files.
At least that’s what it did on my system. Had to get rid of it.
Hi y’all! Can I just say first I love this site; I’ve learnt SO much from it!
/fawning
Anyhow, I’ve been experimenting with this utility on my Vista x64 Ultimate system…
Firstly, you CAN register the .dll on an x64 system: when you put RemoveFocusRect.dll in your System32 folder, ALSO put it into the SysWOW64 folder. The regsvr32 command should work fine…
Trying it out following the restart, I’ve found that the ‘Focus Rectangle’ has gone MOST of the time. However, using the Shift or Ctrl keys to multiple-select files causes the focus rectangle to re-appear. The good news however, is that once you have focused onto something else, the rectangle goes away again.
i.e. The rectangle will appear when multi-selecting, but it doesn’t stay once wherever those files being selected were (the desktop, a loder, etc.) ceases being in focus.
Hopes this helps somebody!
PjhN
This is great and works in Vista (32-bit only).
But I was wondering if there is a way to get it to work in Windows 7, it’s not working at all there.
@Mike: See my comment above. Definitely DOES work on Vista x64.
@PjhN: Thanks! It worked for Vista x64 for now, still I need a way to get it to work with Windows 7 (Both 32 and 64-bit).
Thanks again.
Thanks, it’s working great. But there is one negative thing about this, after registering the file i can’t see the selection rectangle on the desktop (i cant see which files i select…), and that kind of sucks.
Else than that it works great, but is there a way to fix that?
@Mike Glad you got it working in Vista. I’ve just in Windows 7 x64 and it’s not having an effect here either. I guess we’ll have to wait for a Win 7 updated version.
@Nike That’s odd, never had that side effect. Have you tried uninstalling to see if it returns? Otherwise I can’t suggest anything much helpful. Soz!
@PjhN
Maybe i was a little bit unclear. Take a look at the image below and you’ll see what i meant.
http://blubbz.com/host/images/6.png
When i took that screenshot i was dragging the mouse over one of those icons on the image and as you can see one of the icons are selected, but i can’t see the “selection rectangle”… I didn’t let go of the mouse when i took the screenshot so the selection rectangle should be visible.
And yes i’ve tried uninstalling and re-installing it again, but it makes no difference.
In the comment above you said that you’re running Win 7, is it working? I used Vista before and i know i tried this “hack” out, but since Vista doesn’t have the same selection rectangle as on XP (Vista has a blue transparent color one while XP only has “white dots” around the selection) it worked great.
And since Win 7 is pretty much like a newer & fresher Vista with just a few new features i think it’ll work just like on Vista… I’ve tried Win 7 but it was in January when it had just got out, and i just tried it on a laggy Virtual Machine so i didn’t really get a chance to install or do anything on it because it was too slow
Btw thnx for the respond.
Didn’t work on Vista 32 bit SP2.