Yes, I was afraid of that. It is "by design", though I can still dream of a registry fix. Office is the only program on my computer that does this, though. Is this a common feature in some other modern programs?

Curiously (and fortunately), I can still use the scroll wheel of my mouse even on the Word window that doesn't have the focus, but then I have no idea where I am in the document because I can't see the scroll bar.