Windows not coming to the front

Anonymous
2015-02-24T16:02:00+00:00

Recently, when I click on a running program in the taskbar, it is anyones guess if it will come to the front.  Google chrome behind Blizzard desktop launcher, neither clicking on the program in the taskbar nor clicking on the parts of the window visible to the side of the launcher bring it to the top.  Malwarebytes window open, world of warcraft on top of it, click it and it won't come to the front for several clicks.  Once it is on front, now clicking on wow wont bring wow to the front.  GOM media player, 3 windows open, click torrent client, comes to the front on top of 2 out of three of the gom windows.  Windows explorer windows open browsing files, bring chrome to the front on top of it, clicking explorer in the taskbar will not bring it to the front.  It seems to be totally random.  I ran malwarebytes and got rid of some adware, and for a minute it seemed like that had fixed it.  An hour later and it is happening again.  Spotify on top of file folder window, clicking explorer does not come to the front.

Any help?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2016-01-02T09:36:13+00:00

I had same problem under windows 10 x64

Tried scf/scannow but no results, the below link solved the problem(although SCF showed corrupted files) 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_7-windows\_programs/newly-opened-programemail-does-not-open-in-front/fe587f90-5815-4d4a-81b5-55325019af1d

1.      Go to start and type regedit.exe.

2.      Navigate to the following location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.

3.      Double click the 'ForegroundLockTimeout' key. Change the notation to decimal.

4.      The default value should be 200000 millisecond in decimal, or 200 seconds. Click OK.

5.      Restart your computer and check if the issue persists.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-03-04T21:31:43+00:00

    As I wrote earlier, I have had this problem for month. I work out that it is the browser issue and has something to do with the video plugins. I noticed the bar button of the Team Viewer and Real Player remain on the screen when you move the window. So I suspect they keep the window locked. I have now uninstalled the Real Player completely and the problem has gone away.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-22T03:29:23+00:00

    I finally can't take it anymore.  I uninstalled Real Player and rebooted.  Problem is now gone!!!.  Edge, Firefox, work normally now with other windows.  It's been running clean for 2 days.  I'll let it be for another week and see if the problem returns.  If not, I'll tried to reinstall Real Player and see if the problem comes back.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-01-04T10:04:34+00:00

    This was helpful to me since it pointed me to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop key\ForegroundLockTimeout. However, on my computer it was already on 200000. Thus I tried value 0 and now windows come to foreground when clicked.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-28T15:42:08+00:00

    I did, I tried it 3 times. No change.

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