Member Avatar for motaboy

When I browse I have a tendancy to use "open link in new window" often and let the new page load while clicking on the page in the background. Normally as soon as I click on the page, the new window is hidden behind the current page I'm on, but now the newly opened window won't go behind the page I click on. It will just stay there. Even if I click on the first page and hit the scroll wheel, the newly opened page stays over the page i'm trying to scroll. Any idea where i can find the setting to change this?

Oh I'm running windows XP, IE 6.0 service pack 2, thanks

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Dani AI

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Short answer: this is usually caused by a third‑party add‑on or a background utility that changes window z‑order or steals activation. ’s followup (that removing an add‑on stopped the problem) points in the right direction. Below are focused, practical steps and a few diagnostics to reliably find and fix the culprit without reinstalling Windows.

Try these in order:

  • Disable browser add‑ons/toolbars first. Remove or disable any toolbars and helper objects (use Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs or IE’s add‑on/extension controls) and retest.
  • Test with a clean user environment. Create a new Windows user or run the browser in a profile with no extensions to see if the problem is profile‑specific.
  • Clean boot to isolate startup programs. Use msconfig to disable non‑Microsoft services and startup items, reboot, and see if the behavior persists. If it goes away, re-enable groups of items until the offender is found.
  • Check running utilities that commonly force “always on top”: IM clients, desktop enhancers, screen utilities, media players and recording software. Temporarily exit any suspects and retest.
  • Scan for adware/spyware; some malicious toolbars and utilities change window behavior.

If basic steps don’t find it, use diagnostic tools: Autoruns (Sysinternals) to view startup items, Process Explorer to inspect a window’s properties (topmost styles), and ShellExView to disable shell/browser extensions one at a time. When the offending item is found, uninstall it rather than just disabling, then retest. If all else fails, upgrading to a modern browser or reinstalling/repairing Internet Explorer will remove legacy helper objects that can cause these focus/z‑order bugs.

This approach isolates the problem systematically and avoids blind reinstalls.

Member Avatar for mlevin

When I browse I have a tendancy to use "open link in new window" often and let the new page load while clicking on the page in the background. Normally as soon as I click on the page, the new window is hidden behind the current page I'm on, but now the newly opened window won't go behind the page I click on. It will just stay there. Even if I click on the first page and hit the scroll wheel, the newly opened page stays over the page i'm trying to scroll. Any idea where i can find the setting to change this?

Oh I'm running windows XP, IE 6.0 service pack 2, thanks

did you find a solution to this? it is driving me crazy.

Member Avatar for motaboy

I believe what caused the issue was having the yahoo or google toolbar enabled. It seems when i had the yahoo bar on this was the only time i was experiancing the problem. This was awhile back, almost a year ago lol, and i haven't run it since and everything runs correctly.

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