Google Chrome: Always On Top Bug

Question

Sorry for the vague title but this one is hard to explain so bear with me please.

I'm using Windows Vista at work for web development and sometimes when I Click or Alt-Tab to background window, the window will get focus but it will not be brought to the front.

In order to bring the window to the front, I have to click on the applications border (when the resize cursor appears) and the window will then jump to the front.

I've had this problem for about a year now and it happens at least a dozen times a day, but it doesn't do this all the time - seems random.

I hope I have explained the issue fully (and you've understood it) and would appreciate any constructive answers or comments to solve this problem.

Example: If I Alt-Tab from Google Chrome to Notepad and this problem randomly occurs, Google Chrome will remain in front of Notepad, however, I will be able to type text into Notepad while the window is behind Google Chrome. Clicking on Notepad's content area will not bring it to the front but clicking it's window border will.

Video Exampe

http://vimeo.com/19388998

In this video, I clicked from Google Chome to UltraEdit and chrome stayed in font, but as you can see, I can still type in UltraEdit.

I'm starting to believe that this could be a bug in Google Chrome so I'll continue to watch if this between other applications.

Answer 1

In the case of Chrome, this is a known issue : Chrome window always-on-top behavior

A quick fix for this problem is to select the Chrome Window and press F11 twice.

Answer 2

To disable this you have to hit

ALT + Space + C

alt+space+c

After pressing these buttons Google chrome browser will close automatically. Then start again the Google chrome browser.

The problem will be solve for ever :)

Answer 3

What does it look like?

There is only one behavior close to that problem and that would be the Always On Top behavior.
Some piece of code, perhaps from the program itself might be changing the property of your window...

How is a window set to be "Always On Top"?

How To Create a Form That Always Stays on Top shows us that SetWindowPos is called with the second parameter set to HWND_TOPMOST, this immediately places it on top and keeps it that way.

After a quick Google, this result reveals User32.dll to be the owner of this function.

Who sets my window "Always On Top"?

Now that we have the knowledge what function is called, we will want to know when that function is called. This will require us to make stack traces and analyze them, while Windows Performance Toolkit can do this we can be very happy that Rohitab Batra has written the awesome Api Monitor.

Sorry, but this is hard homework:

• Download API Monitor and install it.
• Open API Monitor as an administrator, if you have 64 bit, you need to do this twice.
• Make sure that nothing is checked in API Capture Filter at the left side.
• In the same place, change All Modules at the top of that Dialog to User32.dll.

• Go to

  Windows Application UI Development > Windows and Messages > Windows
  

  and then

  User32.dll > SetWindowPos
  

Now, you will want to hook some processes. Word of caution: Sort by PID and do not hook into winlogon.exe or anything that has a lower PID than that, if you do so you will either hang or crash your system. You might experience this behavior with other processes too, but it's kind of like a trial and error to see which ones you can hook. So:

• Sort by PID, and hook everything that's newer than winlogon.exe.
• If everything goes well, you can look through the threads in the Hooked Process dialog.

• Look for an API call that looks like this:

  SetWindowPos ( 0x000000000002043c, HWND_BOTTOM | 0x00000000fffffffe, 0, 0, 0, 0,
  SWP_NOACTIVATE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE )

A call to SetWindowPos with HWND_BOTTOM | 0x00000000fffffffe (-2 + 1 = -1 = HWND_TOPMOST) is what we are after and the process that does this call is the one you should blame for your problem.

I give up... How can I remedy my "Always On Top" problem?

Battle fire with fire, we're going to set all windows to HWND_NOTOPMOST.

Yikes, programming! But, this can easily be done through scripting too...

So a very simple homework task:

• Download AutoIt v3.

• Create a ByeByeTopMost.au3 file that contains:

  While 1
      $var = WinList()
  
      For $i = 1 to $var[0][0]
          WinSetOnTop($var[$i][1], "", 0)
      Next
  
      Sleep(5000)
  WEnd
  

• Place it in your start-up folder and run it or reboot.

Or if you don't like homework at all, download this zip file I made.

Have fun... :-)

PS: You can't use the "Always On Top" feature in this last case. Either troubleshoot or work-around... ;-)

Answer 4

Got this problem too and find a way to circumvent it. I've installed "Always on Top" software.

And I use it on Chrome for Windows, which changed the state of the property alwaysontop.

Answer 5

Well I had the same problem, and double tapping F11 didn't resolve anything. But I saw, since I had two Google Chrome windows open, that only one of them was on top of every other window I had (Steam, Notepad, etc). I then took one of the always on top tabs and made a new window with it and then took every other tab from the top window to the new one. Now every window appears on top when I select it, like normal.

Hope this can help :)

Answer 6

One quick fix is to click on 'show desktop' button twice on the very right side of the taskbar on windows 7/8/8.1

Answer 7

I had this same problem and managed to fix it by going to "Switch User" in the Start menu and after logging back in the windows respected the toolbar again. It seemed to affect all windows and while chrome might be a cause, it definitely seemed to affect Windows system wide, suggesting a possible culprit from within Windows itself. Making this post after my first run-in with the issue after being a Chrome user for 5 years on both Windows XP & 7.

Answer 8

Open Chrome and press ALT + Space + C