# Window Options

Keep the DMD window in front of the backglass window: If this box is checked, PinballY will make sure that its DMD window is always displayed in front of the backglass window. Even if you click the mouse on the backglass window, the DMD window will still stay in front of it. By default (if the box isn't checked), the DMD window follows the normal Windows UI rules where you can bring other windows in front of it by clicking on them, and you can bring the DMD window back in front by clicking on it.

This option might be handy if you're using a single-monitor or two-monitor setup and you're positioning both the backglass and DMD on the same monitor. (In the more typical pin cab setup, where you have three separate monitors - playfield, backglass, and DMD - the respective layering of these windows is kind of irrelevant since the windows are all on separate monitors anyway.)

Note that this option only affects the PinballY DMD window and backglass window. It doesn't have any effect on DMD windows displayed by other programs, such as the "virtual DMD" window in Freezy's dmd-extensions system, or the VPinMAME DMD window that appears while you're playing a Visual Pinball game, or the B2S Backglass Server DMD window that might also appear while a VP game is running. It also doesn't affect the layering of backglass windows from other programs, such as the B2S Backglass Server window.

Keep the playfield window in front of other applications during launch: If this box is checked, PinballY will make its windows "Topmost" during the process of launching a game - that is, between the time you select the "Play" command and the time the game displays its main window. "Topmost" is a special status in Windows that keeps a window in front of other non-topmost windows - even in front of an active window. This more or less guarantees that other windows won't be visible until the game has started.

This option is intended to make for smoother visual transitions during game launch if you experience any problems with windows belonging to other applications (besides PinballY and the game itself) popping into the foreground during launch. Ideally, we want the PinballY window to be the only thing visible until the game is ready. But other applications don't always cooperate with this plan, thus this option. I've seen problems on Windows 7 in particular where random other windows can come to the foreground during the launch process.

This option is a rather heavy-handed workaround, and I'd only enable it if you actually experience problems with other windows appearing in front of PinballY during launch. The sort of forced layering that this option uses can cause problems of its own. The PinballY windows really should stay in front during launch naturally, without this option enabled. But if they don't, this might be worth a try.