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The goal is to have an application that runs on top of all other applications and windows in the desktop, and display a clickable control (say, an image button) that moves around the screen.

The application must run as a service in the background and show thebutton (let's say) each hour, once clicked it disappears until the next hour.

This application has to be written in Python.

It looks like PyQt is one of the better options, but I'm not sure if it does support this sort of functionality and if it is a good alternative for modern Windows applications.

What packages or frameworks are appropriate for this scenario? I have seen Pygl and PyGame but they seem to be limited to a window, is this correct?

Juan Carlos Coto
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  • Windows won't allow that. What if I wrote the same feature in my program? Who wins? – LarsTech Sep 24 '14 at 21:50
  • I'm pretty sure I've seen some applications have a splash screen or a control display above others (RescueTime comes to mind, for example). I'd try to emulate something like that. – Juan Carlos Coto Sep 24 '14 at 21:58
  • Then I would re-word your question specifying you want a splash form. The current question is also asking for a recommendation, which is one of the off-topic close reasons, so I would try to avoid asking the question like that. – LarsTech Sep 24 '14 at 22:09

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You actually don't need to create the program as a service. You can just start the application and not show the window immediately. You can use PyQt or wxPython. I'm more familiar with wxPython, so if you went that route, you could use a wx.Frame style flag such as wx.STAY_ON_TOP to get the functionality you want.

I have created applications that load up in the system tray with just an icon. When you click the icon, it shows the frame. The rest of the time, the frame is hidden. I would try that route before looking at doing a service.

Mike Driscoll
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