Rainmeter Forums

I use the Alt-Esc shortcut to "minimise" windows (it sends them to the back). If I do this with one window of an application open(or if I do it to all open windows,) rainmeter skins set to be on the desktop appear in front of the window.

Is this just a thing or is there a fix?

Discovered this today. I know a similar combination with ALT+ENTER has been fixed a few updates ago, is there a way for this to be fixed or does Windows and the Window Styles just now allow it (and/or is the solution too risky because it has to monitor high-access areas like key presses which Rainmeter is not about)?

Sorry it took so long to get to this. The "ALT+ENTER" issue turned out to be a "d2d window feature" that is easily controllable by setting some flags. However, this "ALT+ESC" issue is mainly an underlying Windows "issue", if you even want to call it that.

At the heart of it, Windows (the OS) doesn't notify any window that another windows position has changed. So, when the user asks Windows (via ALT+ESC) to place the current active window (the one with focus) to the bottom of the z order, Windows manually places that window behind all others and doesn't tell any other window about it.

Rainmeter does the same thing when initializing a skin (if needed when the skin is first loaded), or if the skin's z position is changed via context menu, Manage dialog, or bang. This manually re-ordering of windows does not happen at any other time.

There is really no way to "know" the skin is no longer at the bottom of the z order without wasting resources by "polling" Windows for the window order.

-Brian