Hazel switching me out of current app into Finder

I've been running Hazel for over a year on my Mac Pro 2008 (10.6.

. I have actions that apply to the Desktop (changing screenshot names etc.), but it's only recently that I've noticed Hazel switching me over to Finder from whatever app I'm on when it runs itself. It never did this before. For example I'll be surfing in Chrome and typing in a field, then suddenly I'm in Finder and I'm adding an alias to the desktop accidentally or whatever. I checked that it was causing this issue by watching Activity Monitor. When Finder became active, I would see Hazel move to the top in CPU %.

Isn't Hazel always supposed to be in the background? Is there a fix for this?

Thanks

Do you have any rules that either run a script or use the "Open file" action?

I suggest opening the log (go to the "Info" section and click "View Log") and next time this happens, see what file it is processing at the time and see if you can figure out which rule is being run.

I had an Applescript running to check "Hide File Extension" inside a documents level folder, but I hadn't changed anything for ages. This switching into Finder only started happening since the latest OS update. I will turn off the offending rule and see how I get on. If you could investigate I'd really appreciate it. Whatever is running, it should always be in the background, right?

Hazel does run in the background but if you have a rule message another app, then that app may or may not jump into the foreground (it's up to that app). Again, if any rule is doing anything via AppleScript or Automator then you need to look at those more closely. I suggest disabling rules (maybe stop Hazel altogether first to make sure it's Hazel doing this) to narrow it down.