> I use a number of side-by-side windows, each typically contains one thing I'm working on. If I do a search in
> one window, I don't want the content of another to be obscured.

Sorry, I don't understand: how is this different from *Help* or *Completions*?

*Completions* go away once it's not needed anymore and *Help* is something that I explicitly as for, so I don't consider them to be problems.

I only want the xref UI to be displayed when doing commands like `find-all-occurences' etc. When doing a plain search, there is no need for it.

> C-x 0 is out of the question, as it would break the side-by-side
> window layout.

OK, then "C-x b" or "C-x 4 C-o" will do, right?

There are ways to restore the window layout, but it would require an extra, unnecessary step.

-- Anders