Bring a window to the front in WPF

Question

How can I bring my WPF application to the front of the desktop  So far I ve tried   SwitchToThisWindow new WindowInteropHelper Application Current MainWindow  Handle  true    SetWindowPos new WindowInteropHelper Application Current MainWindow  Handle  IntPtr Zero  0  0  0  0  SWP NOMOVE   SWP NOSIZE    SetForegroundWindow new WindowInteropHelper Application Current MainWindow  Handle     None of which are doing the job  Marshal GetLastWin32Error   is saying these operations completed successfully  and the P Invoke attributes for each definition do have SetLastError true    If I create a new blank WPF application  and call SwitchToThisWindow with a timer  it works exactly as expected  so I m not sure why it s not working in my original case   Edit  I m doing this in conjunction with a global hotkey

User · Answer

Well  since this is such a hot topic    here is what works for me  I got errors if I didn t do it this way because Activate   will error out on you if you cannot see the window   Xaml    lt Window               Topmost  True                         ContentRendered  mainWindow ContentRendered  gt        lt  Window gt    Codebehind   private void mainWindow ContentRendered object sender  EventArgs e        this Topmost   false      this Activate         UsernameTextBox Focus        This was the only way for me to get the window to show on top  Then activate it so you can type in the box without having to set focus with the mouse  control Focus   wont work unless the window is Active

User · Answer

Why some of the answers on this page are wrong    Any answer that uses window Focus   is wrong     Why  If a notification message pops up  window Focus   will grab the focus away from whatever the user is typing at the time  This is insanely frustrating for end users  especially if the popups occur quite frequently   Any answer that uses window Activate   is wrong    Why  It will make any parent windows visible as well   Any answer that omits window ShowActivated   false is wrong    Why  It will grab the focus away from another window when the message pops up which is very annoying   Any answer that does not use Visibility Visible to hide show the window is wrong    Why  If we are using Citrix  if the window is not collapsed when it is closed  it will leave a weird black rectangular hold on the screen  Thus  we cannot use window Show   and window Hide       Essentially    The window should not grab the focus away from any other window when it activates  The window should not activate its parent when it is shown  The window should be compatible with Citrix    MVVM Solution  This code is 100  compatible with Citrix  no blank areas of the screen   It is tested with both normal WPF and DevExpress   This answer is intended for any use case where we want a small notification window that is always in front of other windows  if the user selects this in the preferences    If this answer seems more complex than the others  it s because it is robust  enterprise level code  Some of the other answers on this page are simple  but do not actually work   XAML - Attached Property  Add this attached property to any UserControl within the window  The attached property will    Wait until the Loaded event is fired  otherwise it cannot look up the visual tree to find the parent window   Add an event handler that ensures that the window is visible or not    At any point  you can set the window to be in front or not  by flipping the value of the attached property    lt UserControl x Class                             attachedProperties EnsureWindowInForeground EnsureWindowInForeground                 Binding EnsureWindowInForeground  Mode OneWay   gt    C  - Helper Method  public static class HideAndShowWindowHelper            lt summary gt              Intent  Ensure that small notification window is on top of other windows           lt  summary gt           lt param name  window  gt  lt  param gt      public static void ShiftWindowIntoForeground Window window                try                          Prevent the window from grabbing focus away from other windows the first time is created              window ShowActivated   false                  Do not use  Show   and  Hide   - not compatible with Citrix              if  window Visibility    Visibility Visible                                window Visibility   Visibility Visible                                We can t allow the window to be maximized  as there is no de-maximize button              if  window WindowState    WindowState Maximized                                window WindowState   WindowState Normal                             window Topmost   true                    catch  Exception                           Gulp  Avoids  Cannot set visibility while window is closing                             lt summary gt              Intent  Ensure that small notification window can be hidden by other windows           lt  summary gt           lt param name  window  gt  lt  param gt      public static void ShiftWindowIntoBackground Window window                try                          Prevent the window from grabbing focus away from other windows the first time is created              window ShowActivated   false                  Do not use  Show   and  Hide   - not compatible with Citrix              if  window Visibility    Visibility Collapsed                                window Visibility   Visibility Collapsed                                We can t allow the window to be maximized  as there is no de-maximize button              if  window WindowState    WindowState Maximized                                window WindowState   WindowState Normal                             window Topmost   false                    catch  Exception                           Gulp  Avoids  Cannot set visibility while window is closing                       Usage  In order to use this  you need to create the window in your ViewModel   private ToastView  toastViewWindow  private void ShowWindow         if   toastViewWindow    null                 toastViewWindow   new ToastView             dialogService Show lt ToastView gt  this  this   toastViewWindow  true             ShiftWindowOntoScreenHelper ShiftWindowOntoScreen  toastViewWindow       HideAndShowWindowHelper ShiftWindowIntoForeground  toastViewWindow      private void HideWindow         if   toastViewWindow    null                HideAndShowWindowHelper ShiftWindowIntoBackground  toastViewWindow             Additional links  For tips on how ensure that a notification window always shifts back onto the visible screen  see my answer  In WPF  how to shift a window onto the screen if it is off the screen

User · Answer

Just wanted to add another solution to this question  This implementation works for my scenario  where CaliBurn is responsible for displaying the main Window   protected override void OnStartup object sender  StartupEventArgs e        DisplayRootViewFor lt IMainWindowViewModel gt          Application MainWindow Topmost   true      Application MainWindow Activate        Application MainWindow Activated    OnMainWindowActivated     private static void OnMainWindowActivated object sender  EventArgs e        var window   sender as Window      if  window    null                window Activated -  OnMainWindowActivated          window Topmost   false          window Focus

User · Answer

If the user is interacting with another application  it may not be possible to bring yours to the front   As a general rule  a process can only expect to set the foreground window if that process is already the foreground process    Microsoft documents the restrictions in the SetForegroundWindow   MSDN entry    This is because    The user  owns  the foreground   For example  it would be extremely annoying if another program stole the foreground while the user is typing  at the very least interrupting her workflow  and possibly causing unintended consequences as her keystrokes meant for one application are misinterpreted by the offender until she notices the change  Imagine that each of two programs checks to see if its window is the foreground and attempts to set it to the foreground if it is not   As soon as the second program is running  the computer is rendered useless as the foreground bounces between the two at every task switch

User · Answer

The problem could be that the thread calling your code from the hook hasn t been initialized by the runtime so calling runtime methods don t work   Perhaps you could try doing an Invoke to marshal your code on to the UI thread to call your code that brings the window to the foreground

User · Answer

These codes will work fine all times   At first set the activated event handler in XAML   Activated  Window Activated    Add below line to your Main Window constructor block   public MainWindow         InitializeComponent        this LocationChanged     sender  e    gt  this Window Activated sender  e       And inside the activated event handler copy this codes   private void Window Activated object sender  EventArgs e        if  Application Current Windows Count  gt  1                foreach  Window win in Application Current Windows              try                               if   win Equals this                                         if   win IsVisible                                                win ShowDialog                                               if  win WindowState    WindowState Minimized                                                win WindowState   WindowState Normal                                             win Activate                        win Topmost   true                      win Topmost   false                      win Focus                                                catch               else         this Focus        These steps will works fine and will bring to front all other windows into their parents window

User · Answer

I built an extension method to make for easy reuse   using System Windows Forms      namespace YourNamespace          public static class WindowsFormExtensions               public static void PutOnTop this Form form                    form Show                    form Activate                    END PutOnTop                      END class         END namespace   Call in the Form Constructor    namespace YourNamespace         public partial class FormName   Form          public FormName                this PutOnTop                InitalizeComponents                END Constructor          END Form                 END namespace

User · Answer

To show ANY currently opened window import those DLL   public partial class Form1   Form        DllImportAttribute  User32 dll        private static extern int FindWindow String ClassName  String WindowName        DllImportAttribute  User32 dll        private static extern int SetForegroundWindow int hWnd     and in program We search for app with specified title  write title without first letter  index   0      foreach  Process proc in Process GetProcesses                                          tx   proc MainWindowTitle ToString                        if  tx IndexOf  Title of Your app WITHOUT FIRST LETTER    gt  0                                                tx   proc MainWindowTitle                          hWnd   proc Handle ToInt32    break                                                          hWnd   FindWindow null  tx                   if  hWnd  gt  0                                        SetForegroundWindow hWnd

User · Answer

myWindow Activate      Attempts to bring the window to the foreground and activates it   That should do the trick  unless I misunderstood and you want Always on Top behavior  In that case you want   myWindow TopMost   true

User · Answer

I have had a similar problem with a WPF application that gets invoked from an Access application via the Shell object   My solution is below - works in XP and Win7 x64 with app compiled to x86 target   I d much rather do this than simulate an alt-tab   void Window Loaded object sender  RoutedEventArgs e           make sure the window is normal or maximised        this was the core of the problem for me         even though the default was  Normal   starting it via shell minimised it     this WindowState   WindowState Normal          only required for some scenarios     this Activate

User · Answer

myWindow Activate      Attempts to bring the window to the foreground and activates it   That should do the trick  unless I misunderstood and you want Always on Top behavior  In that case you want   myWindow TopMost   true

User · Answer

Remember not to put the code that shows that window inside a PreviewMouseDoubleClick handler as the active window will switch back to the window who handled the event   Just put it in the MouseDoubleClick event handler or stop bubbling by setting e Handled to True    In my case i was handling the PreviewMouseDoubleClick on a Listview and was not setting the e Handled   true then it raised the MouseDoubleClick event witch sat focus back to the original window

User · Answer

These codes will work fine all times   At first set the activated event handler in XAML   Activated  Window Activated    Add below line to your Main Window constructor block   public MainWindow         InitializeComponent        this LocationChanged     sender  e    gt  this Window Activated sender  e       And inside the activated event handler copy this codes   private void Window Activated object sender  EventArgs e        if  Application Current Windows Count  gt  1                foreach  Window win in Application Current Windows              try                               if   win Equals this                                         if   win IsVisible                                                win ShowDialog                                               if  win WindowState    WindowState Minimized                                                win WindowState   WindowState Normal                                             win Activate                        win Topmost   true                      win Topmost   false                      win Focus                                                catch               else         this Focus        These steps will works fine and will bring to front all other windows into their parents window

User · Answer

I know this question is rather old  but I ve just come across this precise scenario and wanted to share the solution I ve implemented   As mentioned in comments on this page  several of the solutions proposed do not work on XP  which I need to support in my scenario   While I agree with the sentiment by  Matthew Xavier that generally this is a bad UX practice  there are times where it s entirely a plausable UX   The solution to bringing a WPF window to the top was actually provided to me by the same code I m using to provide the global hotkey  A blog article by Joseph Cooney contains a link to his code samples that contains the original code   I ve cleaned up and modified the code a little  and implemented it as an extension method to System Windows Window   I ve tested this on XP 32 bit and Win7 64 bit  both of which work correctly   using System  using System Collections Generic  using System Linq  using System Text  using System Windows Interop  using System Runtime InteropServices   namespace System Windows       public static class SystemWindows                region Constants          const UInt32 SWP NOSIZE   0x0001          const UInt32 SWP NOMOVE   0x0002          const UInt32 SWP SHOWWINDOW   0x0040            endregion               lt summary gt              Activate a window from anywhere by attaching to the foreground window              lt  summary gt          public static void GlobalActivate this Window w                          Get the process ID for this window s thread             var interopHelper   new WindowInteropHelper w               var thisWindowThreadId   GetWindowThreadProcessId interopHelper Handle  IntPtr Zero                  Get the process ID for the foreground window s thread             var currentForegroundWindow   GetForegroundWindow                var currentForegroundWindowThreadId   GetWindowThreadProcessId currentForegroundWindow  IntPtr Zero                  Attach this window s thread to the current window s thread             AttachThreadInput currentForegroundWindowThreadId  thisWindowThreadId  true                  Set the window position             SetWindowPos interopHelper Handle  new IntPtr 0   0  0  0  0  SWP NOSIZE   SWP NOMOVE   SWP SHOWWINDOW                  Detach this window s thread from the current window s thread             AttachThreadInput currentForegroundWindowThreadId  thisWindowThreadId  false                  Show and activate the window             if  w WindowState    WindowState Minimized  w WindowState   WindowState Normal              w Show                w Activate                        region Imports           DllImport  user32 dll            private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow              DllImport  user32 dll            private static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId IntPtr hWnd  IntPtr ProcessId             DllImport  user32 dll            private static extern bool AttachThreadInput uint idAttach  uint idAttachTo  bool fAttach             DllImport  user32 dll            public static extern bool SetWindowPos IntPtr hWnd  IntPtr hWndInsertAfter  int X  int Y  int cx  int cy  uint uFlags             endregion           I hope this code helps others who encounter this problem

User · Answer

To make this a quick copy-paste one - Use this class  DoOnProcess method to move process  main window to foreground  but not to steal focus from other windows      public class MoveToForeground        DllImportAttribute  User32 dll        private static extern int FindWindow String ClassName  String WindowName        const int SWP NOMOVE          0x0002      const int SWP NOSIZE          0x0001                  const int SWP SHOWWINDOW      0x0040      const int SWP NOACTIVATE      0x0010       DllImport  user32 dll   EntryPoint    SetWindowPos        public static extern IntPtr SetWindowPos IntPtr hWnd  int hWndInsertAfter  int x  int Y  int cx  int cy  int wFlags        public static void DoOnProcess string processName                var allProcs   Process GetProcessesByName processName           if  allProcs Length  gt  0                        Process proc   allProcs 0               int hWnd   FindWindow null  proc MainWindowTitle ToString                    Change behavior by settings the wFlags params  See http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms633545 VS 85  aspx             SetWindowPos new IntPtr hWnd   0  0  0  0  0  SWP NOMOVE   SWP NOSIZE   SWP SHOWWINDOW   SWP NOACTIVATE                       HTH

User · Answer

I have had a similar problem with a WPF application that gets invoked from an Access application via the Shell object   My solution is below - works in XP and Win7 x64 with app compiled to x86 target   I d much rather do this than simulate an alt-tab   void Window Loaded object sender  RoutedEventArgs e           make sure the window is normal or maximised        this was the core of the problem for me         even though the default was  Normal   starting it via shell minimised it     this WindowState   WindowState Normal          only required for some scenarios     this Activate

User · Answer

Remember not to put the code that shows that window inside a PreviewMouseDoubleClick handler as the active window will switch back to the window who handled the event   Just put it in the MouseDoubleClick event handler or stop bubbling by setting e Handled to True    In my case i was handling the PreviewMouseDoubleClick on a Listview and was not setting the e Handled   true then it raised the MouseDoubleClick event witch sat focus back to the original window

User · Answer

I know that this is late answer  maybe helpful for researchers   if   WindowName IsVisible          WindowName Show         WindowName Activate

User · Answer

I have found a solution that brings the window to the top  but it behaves as a normal window   if   Window IsVisible        Window Show       if  Window WindowState    WindowState Minimized        Window WindowState   WindowState Normal     Window Activate    Window Topmost   true      important Window Topmost   false     important Window Focus               important

User · Answer

If you are trying to hide the window  for example you minimize the window  I have found that using       this Hide      will hide it correctly  then simply using       this Show      will then show the window as the top most item once again

User · Answer

myWindow Activate      Attempts to bring the window to the foreground and activates it   That should do the trick  unless I misunderstood and you want Always on Top behavior  In that case you want   myWindow TopMost   true

User · Answer

I built an extension method to make for easy reuse   using System Windows Forms      namespace YourNamespace          public static class WindowsFormExtensions               public static void PutOnTop this Form form                    form Show                    form Activate                    END PutOnTop                      END class         END namespace   Call in the Form Constructor    namespace YourNamespace         public partial class FormName   Form          public FormName                this PutOnTop                InitalizeComponents                END Constructor          END Form                 END namespace

User · Answer

The problem could be that the thread calling your code from the hook hasn t been initialized by the runtime so calling runtime methods don t work   Perhaps you could try doing an Invoke to marshal your code on to the UI thread to call your code that brings the window to the foreground

User · Answer

To make this a quick copy-paste one - Use this class  DoOnProcess method to move process  main window to foreground  but not to steal focus from other windows      public class MoveToForeground        DllImportAttribute  User32 dll        private static extern int FindWindow String ClassName  String WindowName        const int SWP NOMOVE          0x0002      const int SWP NOSIZE          0x0001                  const int SWP SHOWWINDOW      0x0040      const int SWP NOACTIVATE      0x0010       DllImport  user32 dll   EntryPoint    SetWindowPos        public static extern IntPtr SetWindowPos IntPtr hWnd  int hWndInsertAfter  int x  int Y  int cx  int cy  int wFlags        public static void DoOnProcess string processName                var allProcs   Process GetProcessesByName processName           if  allProcs Length  gt  0                        Process proc   allProcs 0               int hWnd   FindWindow null  proc MainWindowTitle ToString                    Change behavior by settings the wFlags params  See http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms633545 VS 85  aspx             SetWindowPos new IntPtr hWnd   0  0  0  0  0  SWP NOMOVE   SWP NOSIZE   SWP SHOWWINDOW   SWP NOACTIVATE                       HTH

User · Answer

myWindow Activate      Attempts to bring the window to the foreground and activates it   That should do the trick  unless I misunderstood and you want Always on Top behavior  In that case you want   myWindow TopMost   true

User · Answer

I have found a solution that brings the window to the top  but it behaves as a normal window   if   Window IsVisible        Window Show       if  Window WindowState    WindowState Minimized        Window WindowState   WindowState Normal     Window Activate    Window Topmost   true      important Window Topmost   false     important Window Focus               important

User · Answer

Well I figured out a work around  I m making the call from a keyboard hook used to implement a hotkey  The call works as expected if I put it into a BackgroundWorker with a pause  It s a kludge  but I have no idea why it wasn t working originally   void hotkey execute         IntPtr handle   new WindowInteropHelper Application Current MainWindow  Handle      BackgroundWorker bg   new BackgroundWorker        bg DoWork    new DoWorkEventHandler delegate                       Thread Sleep 10               SwitchToThisWindow handle  true                   bg RunWorkerAsync

User · Answer

If you are trying to hide the window  for example you minimize the window  I have found that using       this Hide      will hide it correctly  then simply using       this Show      will then show the window as the top most item once again

User · Answer

I know that this is late answer  maybe helpful for researchers   if   WindowName IsVisible          WindowName Show         WindowName Activate

User · Answer

Why some of the answers on this page are wrong    Any answer that uses window Focus   is wrong     Why  If a notification message pops up  window Focus   will grab the focus away from whatever the user is typing at the time  This is insanely frustrating for end users  especially if the popups occur quite frequently   Any answer that uses window Activate   is wrong    Why  It will make any parent windows visible as well   Any answer that omits window ShowActivated   false is wrong    Why  It will grab the focus away from another window when the message pops up which is very annoying   Any answer that does not use Visibility Visible to hide show the window is wrong    Why  If we are using Citrix  if the window is not collapsed when it is closed  it will leave a weird black rectangular hold on the screen  Thus  we cannot use window Show   and window Hide       Essentially    The window should not grab the focus away from any other window when it activates  The window should not activate its parent when it is shown  The window should be compatible with Citrix    MVVM Solution  This code is 100  compatible with Citrix  no blank areas of the screen   It is tested with both normal WPF and DevExpress   This answer is intended for any use case where we want a small notification window that is always in front of other windows  if the user selects this in the preferences    If this answer seems more complex than the others  it s because it is robust  enterprise level code  Some of the other answers on this page are simple  but do not actually work   XAML - Attached Property  Add this attached property to any UserControl within the window  The attached property will    Wait until the Loaded event is fired  otherwise it cannot look up the visual tree to find the parent window   Add an event handler that ensures that the window is visible or not    At any point  you can set the window to be in front or not  by flipping the value of the attached property    lt UserControl x Class                             attachedProperties EnsureWindowInForeground EnsureWindowInForeground                 Binding EnsureWindowInForeground  Mode OneWay   gt    C  - Helper Method  public static class HideAndShowWindowHelper            lt summary gt              Intent  Ensure that small notification window is on top of other windows           lt  summary gt           lt param name  window  gt  lt  param gt      public static void ShiftWindowIntoForeground Window window                try                          Prevent the window from grabbing focus away from other windows the first time is created              window ShowActivated   false                  Do not use  Show   and  Hide   - not compatible with Citrix              if  window Visibility    Visibility Visible                                window Visibility   Visibility Visible                                We can t allow the window to be maximized  as there is no de-maximize button              if  window WindowState    WindowState Maximized                                window WindowState   WindowState Normal                             window Topmost   true                    catch  Exception                           Gulp  Avoids  Cannot set visibility while window is closing                             lt summary gt              Intent  Ensure that small notification window can be hidden by other windows           lt  summary gt           lt param name  window  gt  lt  param gt      public static void ShiftWindowIntoBackground Window window                try                          Prevent the window from grabbing focus away from other windows the first time is created              window ShowActivated   false                  Do not use  Show   and  Hide   - not compatible with Citrix              if  window Visibility    Visibility Collapsed                                window Visibility   Visibility Collapsed                                We can t allow the window to be maximized  as there is no de-maximize button              if  window WindowState    WindowState Maximized                                window WindowState   WindowState Normal                             window Topmost   false                    catch  Exception                           Gulp  Avoids  Cannot set visibility while window is closing                       Usage  In order to use this  you need to create the window in your ViewModel   private ToastView  toastViewWindow  private void ShowWindow         if   toastViewWindow    null                 toastViewWindow   new ToastView             dialogService Show lt ToastView gt  this  this   toastViewWindow  true             ShiftWindowOntoScreenHelper ShiftWindowOntoScreen  toastViewWindow       HideAndShowWindowHelper ShiftWindowIntoForeground  toastViewWindow      private void HideWindow         if   toastViewWindow    null                HideAndShowWindowHelper ShiftWindowIntoBackground  toastViewWindow             Additional links  For tips on how ensure that a notification window always shifts back onto the visible screen  see my answer  In WPF  how to shift a window onto the screen if it is off the screen

User · Answer

To show ANY currently opened window import those DLL   public partial class Form1   Form        DllImportAttribute  User32 dll        private static extern int FindWindow String ClassName  String WindowName        DllImportAttribute  User32 dll        private static extern int SetForegroundWindow int hWnd     and in program We search for app with specified title  write title without first letter  index   0      foreach  Process proc in Process GetProcesses                                          tx   proc MainWindowTitle ToString                        if  tx IndexOf  Title of Your app WITHOUT FIRST LETTER    gt  0                                                tx   proc MainWindowTitle                          hWnd   proc Handle ToInt32    break                                                          hWnd   FindWindow null  tx                   if  hWnd  gt  0                                        SetForegroundWindow hWnd

User · Answer

If the user is interacting with another application  it may not be possible to bring yours to the front   As a general rule  a process can only expect to set the foreground window if that process is already the foreground process    Microsoft documents the restrictions in the SetForegroundWindow   MSDN entry    This is because    The user  owns  the foreground   For example  it would be extremely annoying if another program stole the foreground while the user is typing  at the very least interrupting her workflow  and possibly causing unintended consequences as her keystrokes meant for one application are misinterpreted by the offender until she notices the change  Imagine that each of two programs checks to see if its window is the foreground and attempts to set it to the foreground if it is not   As soon as the second program is running  the computer is rendered useless as the foreground bounces between the two at every task switch

User · Answer

Well I figured out a work around  I m making the call from a keyboard hook used to implement a hotkey  The call works as expected if I put it into a BackgroundWorker with a pause  It s a kludge  but I have no idea why it wasn t working originally   void hotkey execute         IntPtr handle   new WindowInteropHelper Application Current MainWindow  Handle      BackgroundWorker bg   new BackgroundWorker        bg DoWork    new DoWorkEventHandler delegate                       Thread Sleep 10               SwitchToThisWindow handle  true                   bg RunWorkerAsync

User · Answer

Well  since this is such a hot topic    here is what works for me  I got errors if I didn t do it this way because Activate   will error out on you if you cannot see the window   Xaml    lt Window               Topmost  True                         ContentRendered  mainWindow ContentRendered  gt        lt  Window gt    Codebehind   private void mainWindow ContentRendered object sender  EventArgs e        this Topmost   false      this Activate         UsernameTextBox Focus        This was the only way for me to get the window to show on top  Then activate it so you can type in the box without having to set focus with the mouse  control Focus   wont work unless the window is Active

User · Answer

I know this question is rather old  but I ve just come across this precise scenario and wanted to share the solution I ve implemented   As mentioned in comments on this page  several of the solutions proposed do not work on XP  which I need to support in my scenario   While I agree with the sentiment by  Matthew Xavier that generally this is a bad UX practice  there are times where it s entirely a plausable UX   The solution to bringing a WPF window to the top was actually provided to me by the same code I m using to provide the global hotkey  A blog article by Joseph Cooney contains a link to his code samples that contains the original code   I ve cleaned up and modified the code a little  and implemented it as an extension method to System Windows Window   I ve tested this on XP 32 bit and Win7 64 bit  both of which work correctly   using System  using System Collections Generic  using System Linq  using System Text  using System Windows Interop  using System Runtime InteropServices   namespace System Windows       public static class SystemWindows                region Constants          const UInt32 SWP NOSIZE   0x0001          const UInt32 SWP NOMOVE   0x0002          const UInt32 SWP SHOWWINDOW   0x0040            endregion               lt summary gt              Activate a window from anywhere by attaching to the foreground window              lt  summary gt          public static void GlobalActivate this Window w                          Get the process ID for this window s thread             var interopHelper   new WindowInteropHelper w               var thisWindowThreadId   GetWindowThreadProcessId interopHelper Handle  IntPtr Zero                  Get the process ID for the foreground window s thread             var currentForegroundWindow   GetForegroundWindow                var currentForegroundWindowThreadId   GetWindowThreadProcessId currentForegroundWindow  IntPtr Zero                  Attach this window s thread to the current window s thread             AttachThreadInput currentForegroundWindowThreadId  thisWindowThreadId  true                  Set the window position             SetWindowPos interopHelper Handle  new IntPtr 0   0  0  0  0  SWP NOSIZE   SWP NOMOVE   SWP SHOWWINDOW                  Detach this window s thread from the current window s thread             AttachThreadInput currentForegroundWindowThreadId  thisWindowThreadId  false                  Show and activate the window             if  w WindowState    WindowState Minimized  w WindowState   WindowState Normal              w Show                w Activate                        region Imports           DllImport  user32 dll            private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow              DllImport  user32 dll            private static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId IntPtr hWnd  IntPtr ProcessId             DllImport  user32 dll            private static extern bool AttachThreadInput uint idAttach  uint idAttachTo  bool fAttach             DllImport  user32 dll            public static extern bool SetWindowPos IntPtr hWnd  IntPtr hWndInsertAfter  int X  int Y  int cx  int cy  uint uFlags             endregion           I hope this code helps others who encounter this problem

User · Answer

Well I figured out a work around  I m making the call from a keyboard hook used to implement a hotkey  The call works as expected if I put it into a BackgroundWorker with a pause  It s a kludge  but I have no idea why it wasn t working originally   void hotkey execute         IntPtr handle   new WindowInteropHelper Application Current MainWindow  Handle      BackgroundWorker bg   new BackgroundWorker        bg DoWork    new DoWorkEventHandler delegate                       Thread Sleep 10               SwitchToThisWindow handle  true                   bg RunWorkerAsync

User · Answer

If the user is interacting with another application  it may not be possible to bring yours to the front   As a general rule  a process can only expect to set the foreground window if that process is already the foreground process    Microsoft documents the restrictions in the SetForegroundWindow   MSDN entry    This is because    The user  owns  the foreground   For example  it would be extremely annoying if another program stole the foreground while the user is typing  at the very least interrupting her workflow  and possibly causing unintended consequences as her keystrokes meant for one application are misinterpreted by the offender until she notices the change  Imagine that each of two programs checks to see if its window is the foreground and attempts to set it to the foreground if it is not   As soon as the second program is running  the computer is rendered useless as the foreground bounces between the two at every task switch

User · Answer

If the user is interacting with another application  it may not be possible to bring yours to the front   As a general rule  a process can only expect to set the foreground window if that process is already the foreground process    Microsoft documents the restrictions in the SetForegroundWindow   MSDN entry    This is because    The user  owns  the foreground   For example  it would be extremely annoying if another program stole the foreground while the user is typing  at the very least interrupting her workflow  and possibly causing unintended consequences as her keystrokes meant for one application are misinterpreted by the offender until she notices the change  Imagine that each of two programs checks to see if its window is the foreground and attempts to set it to the foreground if it is not   As soon as the second program is running  the computer is rendered useless as the foreground bounces between the two at every task switch

User · Answer

Just wanted to add another solution to this question  This implementation works for my scenario  where CaliBurn is responsible for displaying the main Window   protected override void OnStartup object sender  StartupEventArgs e        DisplayRootViewFor lt IMainWindowViewModel gt          Application MainWindow Topmost   true      Application MainWindow Activate        Application MainWindow Activated    OnMainWindowActivated     private static void OnMainWindowActivated object sender  EventArgs e        var window   sender as Window      if  window    null                window Activated -  OnMainWindowActivated          window Topmost   false          window Focus

User · Answer

In case you need the window to be in front the first time it loads then you should use the following   private void Window ContentRendered object sender  EventArgs e        this Topmost   false     private void Window Initialized object sender  EventArgs e        this Topmost   true

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Well I figured out a work around  I m making the call from a keyboard hook used to implement a hotkey  The call works as expected if I put it into a BackgroundWorker with a pause  It s a kludge  but I have no idea why it wasn t working originally   void hotkey execute         IntPtr handle   new WindowInteropHelper Application Current MainWindow  Handle      BackgroundWorker bg   new BackgroundWorker        bg DoWork    new DoWorkEventHandler delegate                       Thread Sleep 10               SwitchToThisWindow handle  true                   bg RunWorkerAsync

User · Answer

In case you need the window to be in front the first time it loads then you should use the following   private void Window ContentRendered object sender  EventArgs e        this Topmost   false     private void Window Initialized object sender  EventArgs e        this Topmost   true

[c#] Bring a window to the front in WPF

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