I have an application that goes fullscreen using directx during init. The problem occurs when I try to do a usual debug (F5) with VC++ 6: the program reaches a, say, access violation, VC breaks execution, but then the program remains on top of the entire desktop with a blank screen. I can switch to other programs with alt+tab, but the chrashed program still remains on top of everything else where VC holds it. The only way to get out of that is to force VC to close from the task manager, since you can''t close a program under debug in WIN2K. Do I have to add something to handle minimize messages in my message handler? Currently, the message handler only handles VM_QUIT, VM_DESTROY and WM_CLOSE. Or is it something else?

Alt+tab to VC and then press shift+f5 (stop debugging).
Also, remove the TOPMOST flag from your app window and it won''t stay on top when you switch.