Ignore groups
An ignore group names windows that Input.Observer leaves alone. Use one for remote desktops, virtual machines and games, where your gestures and shortcuts should reach the program inside, untouched.
An ignore group has rules that pick its windows, like an app group, but no actions. The windows it matches are ignored in every profile.
What "ignored" means
In a window that an ignore group matches:
| Input | What happens |
|---|---|
| Draw-button press (for example a right-click or right-drag) | Goes straight to the window. No gesture starts, no trail is drawn, and the press is not delayed. |
| Reserved hotkey (Reserved with Windows) | Nothing runs. Windows still hands the keys to Input.Observer, so the window doesn't get them. |
| Passive-watch hotkey | Nothing runs, and the keys reach the window. |
| Typed text | Nothing expands, and every key reaches the window. |
| Global events | Still fire. Mouse-button and wheel global events fire wherever the pointer is (Global events). |
"The window" means the window under the pointer for a draw-button press, and the window in front (with keyboard focus) for hotkeys and typed text.
An ignored window never falls back to Global. That is the difference from an app group with Gestures work here or Hotkeys work here off, which can still fall back to Global's actions.
To also stop global events while one of the group's windows has focus, turn on Pause everything while focused.
Create an ignore group
| LOOK AT | COMPARE | VALUE | MATCH CASE | MATCHES? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program name | is exactly | mstsc.exe | ☐ | ✓ 1 open |
- Open the Ignore groups page and click + New at the bottom of the list ①. A group named New ignore group appears. Give it a name.
- In Which windows count as this group ②, click + Rule and set what to look at (Program name, Program path, Window title or Window class), how to compare it, and the value. Turn on MATCH CASE only when upper and lower case must match exactly. Or press and hold the magnifier on a rule, release it over the window, and the rule is filled in from that window. The MATCHES? column shows how many open windows the rule matches now.
- To ignore the windows only while they are fullscreen, turn on Only while the window is fullscreen ③.
- To turn Input.Observer off entirely while one of these windows has focus, turn on Pause everything while focused ④.
- Save.
With two or more rules, A window belongs to this group when chooses between All rules match and Any rule matches. The rules work exactly as on the App groups page (App groups).
To ignore one program from a guided dialog instead, use Quick create… in the navigation rail and choose to leave a program alone (Keep a program out).
Which group a window belongs to
Every window belongs to at most one group. To find it, Input.Observer checks:
- Every ignore group, before any app group, in the order of the Ignore groups list. The first one whose rules match the window wins.
- Then every app group, in the order of the App groups list.
- A window no group matches uses the Global group.
So a window an ignore group matches is ignored even when an app group also matches it, wherever either sits in the configuration file. Move up and Move down change the order among ignore groups only. To make an exception for one program inside a broad ignore rule, narrow the ignore group's rules; an app group can't win over it.
Ignore groups that are turned off (Enabled off) are skipped entirely: Input.Observer behaves normally again in their windows. Active profiles don't apply to ignore groups.
Only while the window is fullscreen
With Only while the window is fullscreen on, the group matches a window only while that window covers its whole monitor, taskbar area included. A maximized window that leaves the taskbar visible is not fullscreen.
While the window is not fullscreen, the group doesn't match it at all. The window then belongs to the next group that matches it: a later ignore group, or an app group. A game can therefore run its own gestures while windowed and be left alone while fullscreen.
Pause everything while focused
Pause everything while focused turns the whole app off while a window of this group has keyboard focus, as if you had turned off Enabled on the tray menu:
- No gestures start anywhere, even over other windows.
- No hotkey action runs and no text expands. Reserved hotkeys still keep their keys from every program.
- No global event fires.
Input.Observer turns itself back on as soon as focus moves to a window outside the group. With Only while the window is fullscreen also on, the pause applies only while the window is fullscreen; Input.Observer notices a window going into or out of fullscreen within about a second. While paused, the tray icon's tooltip says auto-disabled. If you turned the app off from the tray yourself, it stays off.
Ordinary app groups have the same switch, in Advanced mode.
Convert between ignore groups and app groups
- Convert to app group… in the group's card turns an ignore group back into an ordinary app group, with its rules. Nothing is lost.
- On the App groups page, Convert to ignore group… does the reverse. It first lists what the group loses (its actions, regions, before and after actions, cancel timeout and exclusion zones) and asks you to confirm.
The Global group can never be an ignore group.