At the moment when the control receives the focus the text gets selected. if the AllowShowFocusCues property is set to true and the DropDownStyle is set to DropDownList the focus cues should be painted similarly as in RadDropDownList this.radMultiColumnComboBox1.AllowShowFocusCues = true; this.radMultiColumnComboBox1.DropDownStyle = Telerik.WinControls.RadDropDownStyle.DropDownList;