title: c# winforms - How can I get the child form in front of parent form without making the parent one invisible?
body: <p>This question is not a duplicate of <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18702941/win-form-in-front-of-parent-form">Win Form in front of parent form</a>  </p>
  
  <p>because the author of that one didn't seem to mind if the parent form was hidden, and the answers suggesting ShowDialog() hide the parent. I don't want the parent form hidden.</p>
  
  <p>I have the following code in form_load</p>
  
  <pre><code>    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
      {
          var childform = new Form();           
          childform.Show();
          childform.BringToFront();           
          childform.Activate();
      }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Yet it won't show the child in front of the parent. It shows this, as you can see, it's showing the parent form in front and the child behind, rather than the other way around which I want.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sw825.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sw825.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>I've read of using <code>childform.ShowDialog()</code>   but I don't want that because that would make the parent invisible while the child form shows.  I want both visible.</p>
  
  <p>I've read that BringToFront won't work 'cos it's for controls not forms, and to use Activate, but as you can see i've tried Activate and it isn't working either.</p>