Windows UI Guidelines: programmatically shifting input focus based on a results of a mouse button click

[Tom Whittaker]

I have a wizard where the first screen in the wizard is a login
screen.

When the user clicks the login button, if successful, I want to
programmatically change the input focus to the Next button so that the
user can press the enter key to move to the next screen, or use the
mouse.

Currently, if the user presses the enter key and they are not already
logged in, I translate the accept message into a login; and so if I
then programmatically switch focus to the Next button, the user could
hit enter twice in a row to login and then move to the next screen.

Question: Would this type of a change violate any Windows UI Design
Guidelines?

Should I not make this change and require that the user tab to the
Next button?

[Leo Davidson]

Post by Tom Whittaker
I have a wizard where the first screen in the wizard is a login
screen.

You could avoid the issue by not having separate Login and Next
buttons. Since (by the sound of it) you can't use the wizard until
logged in, logging in is the first step (page) of the wizard and the
standard Next button is all you really need.

If you wanted to you could change the button's label to "Login" while
on that page and "Next" afterwards. Either way, after the user clicks
Login/Next the button you want to have focus will already have it.