Recently (about 4 weeks or so now) I'm having an issue that I haven't had in
the past. One of my applications, not always the same one, will have its
"Keep on top" flag set, and any other windows, whether already opened or
newly opened applications, will be shown behind this top-most application.

The applications are not launching each other, so it's not like one app is
launching a child app, so the child app is always on top. This is exhibiting
that type of behavior, but the "chosen" app will always be on top (in the
z-order) of all other apps.

I don't know how to reproduce it, but it happens almost every day after a
few hours of having my PC on.

Sometimes the top-most window is outlook, sometimes excel, but sometimes
it's not even office, but SQL Server Management Console, sometimes IE.

It's very annoying. If I close down the top-most app and then relaunch it,
it's usually OK for a bit but then it happens again.

Is anyone else seeing issues like this? I keep hoping it's due to a
microsoft update and it will get corrected by a subsequent update, but so far
that's not the case.

"Sonrisante" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:E3B11CCF-75C4-4A6A-9CA1-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Recently (about 4 weeks or so now) I'm having an issue that I haven't had
> in
> the past. One of my applications, not always the same one, will have its
> "Keep on top" flag set, and any other windows, whether already opened or
> newly opened applications, will be shown behind this top-most application.
>
> The applications are not launching each other, so it's not like one app is
> launching a child app, so the child app is always on top. This is
> exhibiting
> that type of behavior, but the "chosen" app will always be on top (in the
> z-order) of all other apps.
>
> I don't know how to reproduce it, but it happens almost every day after a
> few hours of having my PC on.
>
> Sometimes the top-most window is outlook, sometimes excel, but sometimes
> it's not even office, but SQL Server Management Console, sometimes IE.
>
> It's very annoying. If I close down the top-most app and then relaunch
> it,
> it's usually OK for a bit but then it happens again.
>
> Is anyone else seeing issues like this? I keep hoping it's due to a
> microsoft update and it will get corrected by a subsequent update, but so
> far
> that's not the case.

I do not know what's causing the problem but you can force the application
to behave as it should with this command:

c:\tools\cmdow calculator /not

The example uses the Windows Calculator to demonstrate the principle. You
can download cmdow.exe from http://www.commandline.co.uk/cmdow/.

Pegasus [MVP] wrote:
> "Sonrisante" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:E3B11CCF-75C4-4A6A-9CA1-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Recently (about 4 weeks or so now) I'm having an issue that I haven't had
>> in
>> the past. One of my applications, not always the same one, will have its
>> "Keep on top" flag set, and any other windows, whether already opened or
>> newly opened applications, will be shown behind this top-most application.
>>
>> The applications are not launching each other, so it's not like one app is
>> launching a child app, so the child app is always on top. This is
>> exhibiting
>> that type of behavior, but the "chosen" app will always be on top (in the
>> z-order) of all other apps.
>>
>> I don't know how to reproduce it, but it happens almost every day after a
>> few hours of having my PC on.
>>
>> Sometimes the top-most window is outlook, sometimes excel, but sometimes
>> it's not even office, but SQL Server Management Console, sometimes IE.
>>
>> It's very annoying. If I close down the top-most app and then relaunch
>> it,
>> it's usually OK for a bit but then it happens again.
>>
>> Is anyone else seeing issues like this? I keep hoping it's due to a
>> Microsoft update and it will get corrected by a subsequent update, but so
>> far that's not the case.
>
> I do not know what's causing the problem but you can force the application
> to behave as it should with this command:
>
> c:\tools\cmdow calculator /not
>
> The example uses the Windows Calculator to demonstrate the principle. You
> can download cmdow.exe from http://www.commandline.co.uk/cmdow/.

Kelly's site has a "fix" to prevent windows from stealing focus. Either
turning this on, or off _might_ help. You can edit the .vbs file to see
what it does before making the change, though the Undo should set it
back to normal..

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 66. (r-h column) Prevent Programs from Stealing Focus - Undo

--
Joe =o)