Setting focus on a ListBox item breaks keyboard navigation

Don't set the focus to the ListBox... set the focus to the selected ListBoxItem. This will solve the "two keyboard strokes required" problem:

if (lbActions.SelectedItem != null)
    ((ListBoxItem)lbActions.SelectedItem).Focus();
else
    lbActions.Focus();

If your ListBox contains something else than ListBoxItems, you can use lbActions.ItemContainerGenerator.ContainerFromIndex(lbActions.SelectedIndex) to get the automatically generated ListBoxItem.


If you want this to happen during window initialization, you need to put the code in the Loaded event rather than into the constructor. Example (XAML):

<Window ... Loaded="Window_Loaded">
    ...
</Window>

Code (based on the example in your question):

    private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        lbActions.Focus();
        lbActions.SelectedIndex = 0;
        ((ListBoxItem)lbActions.SelectedItem).Focus();
    }