27. Windows - Transferring the keyboard focus on the DAW

In the April 2025 update, v1.7-f4941c72--H2025-04-22--B2025-04-22, we have introduced an automated way to pass the keyboard focus to the DAW.

Clicking on the MP Host and/or the hosted plugin in the MP Host will cause the keyboard focus to be transferred there and not on the DAW.

On Windows, with this update, the MPH passes automatically the space key to the DAW. 
When you have the MP Host big window selected and working with the plugin, if you press the space key it will send it to the DAW, while before it was not possible and you had to click to the DAW. The only requirement for this to work is that the MPH window needs to have the keyboard focus, not the hosted plugin.

Pressing the space key will not only pass the key to the DAW, but it will also transfer the keyboard focus onto the DAW.

When you have the MP Host big window selected and working with the plugin, if you press the space key it will send it to the DAW, while before it was not possible and you had to click to the DAW.

The only requirement for this to work is that the MPH window needs to have the keyboard focus, not the hosted plugin.

Using UPDD:

In UPDD enable this setting: "Reset keyboard focus after a gesture action ends"

Note that "Reset mouse cursor after a gesture action ends" will take the mouse cursor back to it's previous position before the gesture was made.

Using Auto Hot Key:

We have created a small app for a few popular DAWs to transfer the keyboard focus back to the DAW by pressing Win key & z together.

You only need to run the app once. You can add it to your Startup folder so that it starts automatically with Windows

You can download the app for each DAW from here

Zip file password is 123456

More information:

The apps to transfer the keyboard focus were created with Auto Hot Key. A great free scripting platform for creating automation on Windows.

We have included the ahk script in the web folder, in case you want to extend it for more automation.