How to prevent windows bringing a window in front on click

Hi, be sure that before posting this likely old and obvious
question I have googled and searched this forum already without
luck, but in case it has been covered already, please give me a link to it.

I love my windows7 which I will keep using for as long as possible.
But there is something I find quite frustrating, and which on other
operatimg systems desktops works differently. Everytime I click on
a window, it gets brought in front even if it was behind other windows
and I don't want it to. I swear this can be very frustrating sometimes,
when working with several windows and you want them to maintain their
fg/bg arrangement. Is there really no way to prevent that ?
Alternately, isn't there any 3rd party tool or "hack" to avoid this ?
Thanks in advance. This is really something I will never get used to !

This has been the default behavior for Windows going back to Windows 98se and even 3.1 for workgroups that I know of.

If you want to try and tweak this behavior you need a program. There are a whole slew of options here.


Some that might be most suitable:


eXtra Buttons - add extra buttons to windows

Preme for Windows - Windows usability tweaks

AquaSnap - quickly arrange windows on your desktop

AutoSizer - Automatically Resize Your Programs

SmartSystemMenu - extends the system menu of all windows

You might be interested in Virtual Desktops. WindowsPager - organize your windows on multiple desktops

Thank you for your comprehensive reply, that's exactly what I needed to know ! It will take me quite some time to test all those goodies and ssee which is the best tool for my case if any.

I hope one works out. Good luck.