Is there a keyboard shortcut to exit out of the scope of a flash application on a web browser?

Question

On youtube, for example, if you pause a youtube video, keyboard commands like ctrl+t or ctrl+w don't work. Is there a keyboard shortcut that will return the focus to the web browser and not the flash app?

Answer 1

I do not know of a shortcut that will move focus back to the parent window, but if you alt+tab and then alt+tab back real quick, the Flash window will lose focus and you can alt+d or ctrl+t to your heart's content afterward.

Answer 2

Some background story: this is related to a ridiculous software patent by Eolas that actually has recently been revoked (after some 15 years of trolling) due to prior art being established.

Eolas patented plugins that automatically gained focus, which is why one has to click on e.g. Youtube controls before using them. The videos can autoplay by a technical loophole in the patent that doesn't cover a specific javascript implementation.

This is also related to why plugins can't return focus to the browser by a simple in-plugin button combination.

Answer 3

While the Alt+Tab method works, I recommend using autohotkey for this (and pretty much anything else). This way you can make all your hotkeys work as expected.

Here is the close tab command as an example:

$^w:: ; the $ prevents the hotkey from calling itself in line 4
Send, {Control up}
ControlClick, x1 y1085, ahk_class MozillaWindowClass,,,, Pos ; FF gain focus
send ^w ; send hotkey
return 

Voila, easy and smooth, now you can close the tab without regaining focus. This works for ALL plugins not just Flash.