Q: How do I keep my background-only application from becoming active in Mac OS X version 10.1 when my app's NSStatusItem is clicked? A: A bug was introduced in Mac OS X version 10.1 that causes a click on an application's NSStatusItem(s) to bring the app to the front, even if the application is a background-only application. This will be fixed in the next major version of Mac OS X, but here is some code that you can use to work around the bug in a relatively safe way: // NSStatusBarButton is a private class, so put in a cheesy interface. // Note that this interface is not correct and should only be used to // allow the following workaround to compile. @interface NSStatusBarButton:NSButton @end // For 10.1 versions of the AppKit, workaround the activation issue; // for later versions with the bug fix, defer to the kit. @implementation NSStatusBarButton (AppKitWorkaround) - (BOOL)acceptsFirstResponder { return (NSAppKitVersionNumber < 630) ? NO : [super acceptsFirstResponder]; } Listing 1. workaround to prevent NSStatusItem clicks from activating a background-only application [Oct 30 2001]