XP: how to force pop-up windows on top?

[bibblebub]

This is just a minor problem that's irritating when it happens - pop-up windows are sometimes displayed behind the current window.

e.g. when moving or copying files from one folder to another a pop-up appears to confirm the action, but even though focus has moved to that pop-up window the file explorer window sometimes stays on top. That pop-up is waiting for its OK button to be clicked (that button doesn't necessarily have the focus) and you can't get to it because it's hidden behind the main window; and so you're stuck because the main window is waiting for that pop-up to exit. There is no task bar icon for the pop-up to bring it to the front so the only way around this seems to be to run the task manager and immediately close it, and this brings the pop-up to the fore.

I did once find a registry tweak that forced these pop-ups to always appear on top but Windows overwrote that setting within minutes (and I can't find the tweak again anyway).

Is there a Windows setting or a registry value that forces a pop-up to be on top of the window that spawned it?

Thanks in advance.

[rojash]

"Is there a Windows setting or a registry value that forces a pop-up to be on top of the window that spawned it?"
Nope, it's a cockup in the way that WinXp handles the Z-order. It's also one of the few things that didn't get fixed properly in Win7

[bibblebub]

Thanks - that's disappointing although not totally unexpected.

[ChuckFickens]

ALT+TAB is a slightly quicker way to bring the pop-up to front, but I agree it is annoying.

[bibblebub]

Thanks Chuck, one gets so used to using a mouse to switch between windows that the keyboard equivalents can just get forgotten. Frankly, right from the outset, I've never really bothered with them which is why is didn't cross my mind; that key combo is certainly quicker than using the task manager (I've just tested it).