z-Order dead on XPHome laptop

[AEN007]

1December2009

Greetings.

Here's a fun one.
The z-order on my XP Home laptop stopped functioning properly this week.
Minimizing non "always on top" windowed apps/utils no longer
sends the app/util to the bottom of the z-order.
Anyone ever heard of this one before?
Anyone know & would tell me what controls the z-order?
Does a registry entry control the z-order?

Any helpful replies/insights appreciated.
Thank you.
Regards,
AEN
Æ

[Devasis]

Actually, There is not a "controller" for z-order at all, Applications set themselves as background (or foreground) explicitly and keep on checking can actually (mostly) guarantee that they'll keep their place in the z-order. Anything that can interact with the desktop and the user's desktop heap can cause the issue.

[Dr. V]

There's not a "controller" for z-order at all, and only applications that explicitly set themselves as background (or foreground) and keep checking can actually (mostly) guarantee that they'll keep their place in the z-order. Unless the application itself makes sure about they are using their own code, there's no guarantee that z-order will be the same forward and back when applications are minimized, maximized, brought to foreground/sent to background, etc.

[AEN007]

3December2009

Greetings.
Thanks for the replies.

XP does control the z-order as the following link explains.
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/ar.../20/55367.aspx

XP was managing the z-order correctly
until this week for some unknown reason.
Fortunately I (seem to) have subsequently found resolution(s).
At the moment XP is (once again) properly managing
the z-order on each laptop with Personalized Menus disabled.

I still need/want to find a helpful network PING problem solver.
Any suggestions?

Thank you.
Regards,
AEN
AE