I need layers palette over not under images.

Question

Hi,
Photoshop CS4
How can I make the layers palette show on top of images I am working on, it flies out sideways but is under them !!  I see no setting for this in preferences>interface.
I have to make them smaller so as to see it, which in itself is the most stupid thing Adobe ever did to the interface, why force the working area smaller, I dont even want it on top covering the bit I am editing !  My screen space is only 60% width for images when that layers panel is opened. For a program that is all about working on images, we need images big, and panels non intrusive into our screen area.
So my second question is how can I have it expand downwards like CS2, I far prefer CS2, I can even see the image that is active as the top bar is blue and others are grey. The number of times now I have found myself seeing nothing happening then discovered the image being affected is different to what I thought, having to look at shades of grey at the top and establish which is the darker denoting the window that is active is nuts. Goes against years of blue active windows bars which worked, instant realisation. I hate CS4, even the way it harmonises with msoft windows seems glitchy, redraw seems to happen in large square chunks, CS2 was instant throughout. minimise and close icons top right are ghosted and its the ghosts that actually function. A thin grey line runs throughout the top wording, on office and home PC's both XP, different graphics cards, both chosen from the Adobe compatible list !
I have CS5 still boxed as I fear Adobe will no doubt make things even worse ! Flash CS5 is worse than CS4, slow and glitchy and users on the internet say the entire CS5 suite is flawed.
Envirographics

Answer 1

ok, now that I have found out how to post images,
Heres the layout that I like in my CS4, palettes top right and when I click e.g. layers it opens downwards, leaving my screen for use with images.
and here is the palette when layers tab clicked on, I dont like though the fact that in CS4 they are taking up 1.5inches more of my screen than in CS2, they wont go any narrower than this. I am running 1024x768, the most the monitor can do, but that's a valid resolution, used it for any years now :-
If I click on the dark grey top to that palette set or on the chevron in the next image
I get this, which is dumb. The icon bar out across screen.
If I was to position this to abutt against screen edge at right it would open palettes OFF screen
If I open some images with my palettes showing having clicked on the dark grey top to the icon bar in the last but one image, I now see they are over the palettes.
I also find the menu atop screen is squiffy, a grey line runs throughout, and the minimise and close buttons are not the dark ones but something in grey slightly lower, see image:-
and having relaunched photoshop CS4 and even made the palette go as the icon bar and back, this time the images are underneath, the whole thing drives me nuts.
Envirographics