Outlook reminders don’t pop up on top

Dear All:

Here is a question. Running Outlook 2000 on Windows 2000 Professional PC. Reminders do not pop up on top of all the other windows if I have either MS Word or a terminal emulator program active. If I have Internet Explorer active, they do pop up!

Can anybody offer an intelligent explanation as to why Outlook reminders pop up over certain programs and don’t over others?