0 Programmatically Removing the “Always on Top” Window State from Chrome on Windows.md

Programmatically Removing the “Always on Top” Window State from Chrome on Windows

• Enumerates all visible top-level windows using the Windows API (via ctypes) and collects window metadata such as title, process ID, executable path, and extended window styles.
• Identifies windows belonging to a specific target executable (chrome.exe) and checks whether they are marked with the WS_EX_TOPMOST (always-on-top) extended style.
• Safely removes the topmost attribute from matching windows using SetWindowPos, logging successful modifications and failures for traceability.

main.py

import ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes
import os
import sys

# Ensure UTF-8 output
try:
    sys.stdout.reconfigure(encoding="utf-8", errors="replace")
except Exception:
    pass

user32 = ctypes.WinDLL("user32", use_last_error=True)
kernel32 = ctypes.WinDLL("kernel32", use_last_error=True)

EnumWindowsProc = ctypes.WINFUNCTYPE(wintypes.BOOL, wintypes.HWND, wintypes.LPARAM)

PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION = 0x1000

# --- GWL / style constants ---
GWL_STYLE   = -16
GWL_EXSTYLE = -20

WS_EX_TOPMOST = 0x00000008

# --- SetWindowPos constants ---
HWND_NOTOPMOST = wintypes.HWND(-2)

SWP_NOSIZE       = 0x0001
SWP_NOMOVE       = 0x0002
SWP_NOACTIVATE   = 0x0010
SWP_FRAMECHANGED = 0x0020

# --- function prototypes ---
user32.EnumWindows.argtypes = [EnumWindowsProc, wintypes.LPARAM]
user32.EnumWindows.restype = wintypes.BOOL

user32.IsWindowVisible.argtypes = [wintypes.HWND]
user32.IsWindowVisible.restype = wintypes.BOOL

user32.GetWindowTextLengthW.argtypes = [wintypes.HWND]
user32.GetWindowTextLengthW.restype = ctypes.c_int

user32.GetWindowTextW.argtypes = [wintypes.HWND, wintypes.LPWSTR, ctypes.c_int]
user32.GetWindowTextW.restype = ctypes.c_int

user32.GetWindowThreadProcessId.argtypes = [wintypes.HWND, ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.DWORD)]
user32.GetWindowThreadProcessId.restype = wintypes.DWORD

kernel32.OpenProcess.argtypes = [wintypes.DWORD, wintypes.BOOL, wintypes.DWORD]
kernel32.OpenProcess.restype = wintypes.HANDLE

kernel32.CloseHandle.argtypes = [wintypes.HANDLE]
kernel32.CloseHandle.restype = wintypes.BOOL

kernel32.QueryFullProcessImageNameW.argtypes = [
    wintypes.HANDLE, wintypes.DWORD, wintypes.LPWSTR, ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.DWORD)
]
kernel32.QueryFullProcessImageNameW.restype = wintypes.BOOL

user32.SetWindowPos.argtypes = [
    wintypes.HWND, wintypes.HWND,
    ctypes.c_int, ctypes.c_int, ctypes.c_int, ctypes.c_int,
    wintypes.UINT
]
user32.SetWindowPos.restype = wintypes.BOOL

# --- GetWindowLongPtrW (32/64-bit safe) ---
if ctypes.sizeof(ctypes.c_void_p) == 8:
    user32.GetWindowLongPtrW.argtypes = [wintypes.HWND, ctypes.c_int]
    user32.GetWindowLongPtrW.restype = ctypes.c_longlong
    def get_window_long_ptr(hwnd, index) -> int:
        return int(user32.GetWindowLongPtrW(hwnd, index))
else:
    user32.GetWindowLongW.argtypes = [wintypes.HWND, ctypes.c_int]
    user32.GetWindowLongW.restype = ctypes.c_long
    def get_window_long_ptr(hwnd, index) -> int:
        return int(user32.GetWindowLongW(hwnd, index))


def get_window_title(hwnd: int) -> str:
    length = user32.GetWindowTextLengthW(hwnd)
    if length <= 0:
        return ""
    buffer = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(length + 1)
    user32.GetWindowTextW(hwnd, buffer, length + 1)
    return buffer.value


def get_process_id(hwnd: int) -> int:
    pid = wintypes.DWORD(0)
    user32.GetWindowThreadProcessId(hwnd, ctypes.byref(pid))
    return int(pid.value)


def get_process_image_path(pid: int) -> str:
    process = kernel32.OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION, False, pid)
    if not process:
        return ""
    try:
        size = wintypes.DWORD(4096)
        buffer = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(size.value)
        if kernel32.QueryFullProcessImageNameW(process, 0, buffer, ctypes.byref(size)):
            return buffer.value
        return ""
    finally:
        kernel32.CloseHandle(process)


def get_extended_style(hwnd: int) -> int:
    return get_window_long_ptr(hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE)


def has_flag(value: int, flag: int) -> bool:
    return (value & flag) == flag


def is_target_executable(image_path: str, target_exe: str = "chrome.exe") -> bool:
    if not image_path:
        return False
    return os.path.basename(image_path).lower() == target_exe.lower()


def remove_topmost(hwnd: int) -> None:
    flags = SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOACTIVATE | SWP_FRAMECHANGED
    if not user32.SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_NOTOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, flags):
        raise ctypes.WinError(ctypes.get_last_error())


def enumerate_windows():
    windows = []

    @EnumWindowsProc
    def callback(hwnd, lparam):
        if not user32.IsWindowVisible(hwnd):
            return True

        title = get_window_title(hwnd)
        if not title:
            return True

        pid = get_process_id(hwnd)
        image = get_process_image_path(pid)
        exstyle = get_extended_style(hwnd)

        windows.append((hwnd, pid, title, image, exstyle))
        return True

    if not user32.EnumWindows(callback, 0):
        raise ctypes.WinError(ctypes.get_last_error())

    return windows


if __name__ == "__main__":
    TARGET_EXE = "chrome.exe"
    modified_count = 0

    for hwnd, pid, title, image, exstyle in enumerate_windows():
        if not is_target_executable(image, TARGET_EXE):
            continue

        if has_flag(exstyle, WS_EX_TOPMOST):
            try:
                remove_topmost(hwnd)
                modified_count += 1
                print(f"[OK] TOPMOST removed  HWND=0x{hwnd:08X} PID={pid} TITLE={title} EXE={image}")
            except OSError as e:
                print(f"[FAIL] Could not modify HWND=0x{hwnd:08X} PID={pid} TITLE={title} EXE={image} ERROR={e}")

    print(f"Done: TOPMOST removed from {modified_count} window(s) (target EXE = {TARGET_EXE})")