I’m working on a PyQt5 project where I want to create a “glitch” window that displays images with a glitch effect. The window should stay on top of all other windows, including the taskbar and any windows that appear when I use Alt-Tab. However, I’m encountering an issue where the window doesn’t stay on top of the taskbar and Alt-Tab windows.

Here’s the code I’m using:

import sys
import random
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMainWindow
from PyQt5.QtGui import QPainter, QPixmap
from PyQt5.QtCore import Qt, QTimer
import time
import os

class GlitchWindow(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self, image_paths):
        super().__init__()
        self.setWindowFlags(Qt.Window | Qt.SplashScreen | Qt.FramelessWindowHint | Qt.WindowStaysOnTopHint)
        self.setAttribute(Qt.WA_TranslucentBackground)
        self.setGeometry(0, 0, QApplication.desktop().width(), QApplication.desktop().height())
        self.timer = QTimer(self)
        self.timer.timeout.connect(self.update)
        self.timer.start(50)  # Update every 50ms
        self.glitch_duration = 50000  # Glitch effect duration in milliseconds

        # Load images
        self.images = [QPixmap(image_path) for image_path in image_paths]

        # Stop the glitch effect after a short duration
        QTimer.singleShot(self.glitch_duration, self.close)

    def paintEvent(self, event):
        painter = QPainter(self)
        for _ in range(2):  # Adjust the number of images painted per frame
            image = self.images[_]
            middleW = (self.width()-image.width())//2+800
            middleH = (self.height()-image.height())//2+400
            if not _:
                x = random.randint(middleW-2, middleW+2)
                y = random.randint(middleH-2, middleH-2)
            else:
                x = random.choice([random.randint(middleW-400,middleW-200),random.randint(middleW+200,middleW+400)])
                y = random.randint(middleH-400,middleH-300)
                time.sleep(0.1)
            painter.drawPixmap(x, y, image)

def show_glitch(image_paths):
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    glitch = GlitchWindow(image_paths)
    glitch.show()
    app.exec_()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    image_paths = [
        "Downloads/glitch.png",
        "Downloads/glitches.png",
    ]
    show_glitch(image_paths)

Despite setting the Qt.WindowStaysOnTopHint flag, the window does not stay on top of the Windows taskbar and the windows that appear when using Alt-Tab.

I’ve tried setting various window flags, such as Qt.SplashScreen and Qt.FramelessWindowHint.
Ensuring the window is set to stay on top with Qt.WindowStaysOnTopHint.

The window should remain on top of all other windows, including the taskbar and Alt-Tab windows, for the duration specified (50,000 milliseconds).

The window does not stay on top of the taskbar or the Alt-Tab windows, but it does stay on top of everything else.

I’m running this on Windows 10.
Using Python 3.8 and PyQt5.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I really appreciate any help you can provide.