Because a System.Windows.Forms.ListView control does not have directly editable areas—only items contained in the System.Windows.Forms.ListView can be edited—the text of an item in the System.Windows.Forms.ListView will display the focus reticle when the System.Windows.Forms.ListView has focus. Typically, the last selected item in the System.Windows.Forms.ListView control is the item with focus. Although an item may display the focus reticle, it might not actually be a selected item in the System.Windows.Forms.ListView. You can use the ListViewItem.Focused property to determine if the item is currently the focused item in the System.Windows.Forms.ListView control that contains it. If the System.Windows.Forms.ListViewItem is not associated with a System.Windows.Forms.ListView control, this property will return false.

The System.Windows.Forms.ListView control provides the ListView.FocusedItem property to allow you to determine which System.Windows.Forms.ListViewItem in the System.Windows.Forms.ListView has the focus.