Why does the keyboard focus keep switching to the menu bar?

Question

Does anyone else have the problem of Photoshop CS6 constantly setting the keyboard focus to the menu bar? This makes it difficult to use shortcuts.
Typical examples: I want to switch to the Move tool, so I press V, but instead, the View menu drops down. Or I press T for the Type tool, but instead, the Filter menu drops down. This happens often and it's very annoying.
This also happens in Premiere Pro CS6, and happens on both my Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 machines. Doesn't happen in other applications, and is not related to actually using a menu, i.e. if I choose something from a menu, then press V, Photoshop will often work correctly and activate the Move tool. This behavior seems to happen randomly.

Answer 1

Alt doesn't really "unhide" the menu bar (speaking of Photoshop), but it's always been the introducer of keyboard operations for "keyboard accessbility" - i.e., operation of Windows applications without mouse.
Alt causes little underlines to show up under the key characters of menu items, and prepares the system for the next character being typed to open a menu - so for example you press something like 'e' and the Edit menu pulls down.  Now you use an arrow key to move to the next item, or maybe a single character that's associated with one of the menu entries.
Photoshop's goals for using modifier keys kind of conflict with this.  They've apparently tried to reach a balance where using the Alt key to modify some operation cancels the introduction of the next menu item. 
But I don't think it's possible to be perfect at that, especially for example if the user presses Alt, decides not to do the operation he was thinking about doing (e.g., zooming out), then just releases the key.  Another factor might be the habits people get into for choosing tools.
As a contrast, one person might not press the Alt key until they're sure they're going to do something with it (e.g., zoom out), and that same person might only choose tools from the Tools panel by clicking on them.  Another person might press the Alt key sometimes, but then stop before doing the operation it modifies.  That same person might be in the habit of choosing tools by their letter (e.g., E for eraser).  It's clear to see how the first person might never get into a condition where the menu introducer key (Alt) leaves them in a state where a menu opens inadvertently, while the latter might see it regularly.
As far as why Photoshop might get into a mode where the menu introduction occurs when you HAVEN'T pressed the Alt key, I don't know; I certainly haven't seen that reported much if at all here on the forum.
-Noel