Hate Windows 10 Calculator Focus? Get Your Windows 7 / 8 Version Back

I recently upgraded to Windows 10 – mostly for the native workspaces (prior to it being native, I used Dexpot which worked great).

I found this post on the Windows 10 subreddit which links to a Winaero tweak to fix the issue with the Windows 10 Calculator focus . This makes the native calculator work exactly as it did in Windows 7 / 8.

My biggest gripe with Windows 10 has to be that certain default programs are now “app-ified”, mainly the calculator. My Microsoft Natural keyboard has a calculator shortcut key which I use frequently. It would automatically open the calculator program, automatically give it focus, and I could start typing immediately – but Windows 10 changed that.

I’d have to press the shortcut key twice (no idea why), and on the second press the app would display, but with no automatic focus. Then I would have to “click” the app to give it focus. The entire process was very annoying. I’m glad I found this elegant solution.

Winaero – Get Calculator from Windows 8 and Windows 7 in Windows 10

Update 2 – 4/3/2016 – Uninstall Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard

Thanks to the commenter Kashif, I’ve had success with uninstalling the Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard center. All of the shortcut keys still work – I’m sure Microsoft has extended support built-in to Windows 10. If this works for you, leave a comment below and let me know!

Update – 8/29/2015 – Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard Users

I’ve had some users mention that even after doing this (or shortly after it working successfully), it would stop giving focus. So here’s a trick I did that works great.

1. Create this as a batch file (yes – old school hacks still work in Windows 10 – shame on you Microsoft!)
   @echo off
cd c:windowssystem32
start calc.exe
2. Modify the Calculator key for your keyboard to run a program or shortcut.
3. Point the Calculator key to your new batch file.