How to Create a Topmost Window

 Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
Article ID: Q81137
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) versions 3.1
  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with: 

        - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51
    - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0

SUMMARY

Windows 3.1 introduces the concept of a topmost window that stays above all the non-topmost windows even when the window is not the active window.

There are two ways to add the topmost attribute to a window:

  1. Use CreateWindowEx to create a new window. Specify WS_EX_TOPMOST as the value for the dwExStyle parameter.

  2. Call SetWindowPos, specifying an existing non-topmost window and HWND_TOPMOST as the value for the hwndInsertAfter parameter.

SetWindowPos can also be used to remove the topmost attribute from a window. To do so, specify HWND_NOTOPMOST or HWND_BOTTOM as the value for the hwndInsertAfter parameter.

Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 3.51 4.00 95
KBCategory: kbui
KBSubcategory: UsrWndw

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
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