New processes open windows at bottom of window stack

If I click on a .txt document. Notepad.exe will open under all other windows open. If each window is on its own layer (can be seen as overlapping windows), then it would be inserted at Layer 0, or the bottom of the stack. I want it inserted at the top of the stack at 'Layer "whatever-would-be-front".'

I guess it depends how a program works, if the program forks a new process (like "Browse file system" to find a file) it doesn't necessarily open underneath all other windows. If I am running AutoCAD and try to PDF a file, the separate Acrobat driver causes this to open underneath all other windows open. So I'm sitting there waiting and actually the processing has completed and waiting for me to input more information.

A seemingly important hint of what is going on is this does NOT happen from the start menu. Any program started from the "Pin to Start Menu" area or "All programs" are brought to the front.

Any programs started from the Desktop, Taskbar, or essentially, Windows Explorer start at the bottom of all other windows.

I'm running Win 7 Pro SP1 64-bit.

Oh. Hello there. I see you are also a guy.

Thanks for the heads up. This fixed it. I spent 2 hours on Google searches. I don't think I used the term "window focus" though.

Dave76 said:

Glad you got it fixed.

You Guys do realize you're talking to yourself

I don't have many [any?] friends ... or maybe I'm the imaginary friend?

Although the registry hacks seem have taken care of the brunt of the issues, I still occasionally get a few hiccups in window focus.