Some windows are always on top... how to avoid/manage that??

Hey fellows

I've never seen something like this, and I've been noticing it on my Windows 7 laptop that is a couple of months old. This is my first experience with Windows 7, I've always used XP (and older versions before) and also Ubuntu Linux for the past years.

I'm used to work with a lot of windows floating around my screen, and rising the important-to-the-moment ones as I need them.
But my system seems to put some of them on a higher layer, even above the Windows taskbar.
Right now, Mendeley Desktop and Texmaker are on top of anything, no mather which windows currently has the focus. Other times Firefox is in that situation, but right now it is below - together with all the other windows. To get visual access to Firefox (or any other) I have to minimize or move that other two.

Well, odd, actually right now-now it seems Firefox is in the higher layer, its window behaves normally with Texmaker and Mendeley, but it stays above every other windows and the Windows taskbar.

Am I missing something? It is a pain to not have easy access to the windows on my screen.
Is it normal? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

Some applications request that they always be on top from Windows, and there's not really any way around it other than minimizing them or closing them. Perhaps there's an option within the applications that has them set to be always on top that you can disable?

 

It's not the case...

Like Firefox, sometimes it comes ahead of everything, sometimes it stays "at the back" with the others. The other windows I've been seeing acting like that are also regular windows that shouldn't be always on top like that.

So this behavior is not normal?

 

Not really, no. I haven't ever experienced it at least.

 

Oh dammit.
I´ll try to find out what is causing that.
I suspect that Switcher (a little app to avoid alttabing, like I am used to with Linux's Compiz) could have something to do with it. But I couldn't spot that yet.

 

I think I spotted the culprit.

This week they had updated my system at work to a Windows 7 machine. I installed some of my favorite apps and suddenly this same behavior started to happen. I believe it was Winamp.

During my XP years I've always used Winamp as an always on top bar on my screen. Now on Seven it seems to mess things up bad.

I stopped using it and I haven't noticed that annoying behavior anymore.