Win+D (Show Desktop) does not hide the overlay - decide normal vs topmost window
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100
Research direction
Start by reproducing the Win+D behavior on Windows with the current topmost overlay and compare it with Win+M and the taskbar Show Desktop action. Evaluate the normal-window, keyboard-hook, and hybrid options against taskbar, Alt+Tab, minimize-all, and overlay use; done means choosing and documenting one behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Problem
Pressing Win+D (Show Desktop) does not hide the PlotRuler overlay along with other windows — it stays visible floating over the desktop.
Why
Windows implements Show Desktop by raising the desktop above everything in the window stack, but it explicitly cannot cover always-on-top (topmost) windows. PlotRuler is topmost by design (it's an overlay that must float above the graph being read), so the OS can't hide it natively on Win+D without dropping that flag.
WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW is not the blocker; WindowStaysOnTopHint (WS_EX_TOPMOST) is the reason it stays up.
Options considered
- Intercept Win+D / Win+M with a Win32 low-level keyboard hook, then hide the overlay to the tray. Keeps it topmost for reading graphs, disappears on show-desktop like a normal window. Slightly more Win32 code to maintain (hook lifecycle, edge cases like the taskbar "Show Desktop" button, which a keyboard hook won't catch).
- Drop the always-on-top flag and make it a fully normal window. Simplest and most predictable — appears in taskbar / Alt+Tab, hides on Win+D. But it no longer floats above other apps, so reading over a graph requires bringing it forward manually. This conflicts with the core overlay use case.
- Hybrid: keep topmost for the reading overlay, but respond to Win+D/Win+M by hiding to tray via a hook.
Other "normal window" behaviors
While here, this is a broader question: the overlay currently does not behave like a normal window for several OS operations. The issue is to decide how far to go toward "normal window" semantics (taskbar/Alt-Tab presence, minimize-all behavior, etc.) versus staying a specialized always-on-top tool.
Decision
Undecided — needs more real-world testing of the current topmost behavior before choosing. Filing to track the tradeoff and revisit.
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 1
- Forks
- 0
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Getting set up
We have not checked this project's setup files yet. Start from its README, and see our first-contribution guide for the general steps.
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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