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That is weird, but I'm glad you got it sorted out.

And yeah, there certainly is: How to Write a Focus Listener (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Writing Event Listeners)

Sadly, no. Java (purposely) has little control over what goes on outside of it. There are quite a few behaviors that are OS-specific (one example I can think of is how window resize events are...

Sure, this could be OS-dependent behavior. I'm on Windows XP, and it seems to work fine.

Works for me, regardless of focus.

If you want help, you'll have to provide an SSCCE that we can play with. Make sure it's as small as possible while still demonstrating your problem.