RE floating windows, (have to assume this is a bug)

I too find it unexpected behavior that despite unchecking in CS4 Preferences / Interface the “Enable floating document window docking” and “Open documents as tabs” , a new image ALWAYS opens docked to the top left of the framed workspace.
Things get even more puzzling if one has PS CS4 set as a window on part of the monitor area (Restored Down)- The new image will always be opened within that restored down window, and in my case it is a microscopic dot on the screen.
You can drag the new image away from the framed workspace to another area of the monitor, and enlarge it with a mouse wheel or the zoom tool, but should you use the keyboard shortcuts of CTRL + +, or CTRL + -, or CTRL + 0, the image window immediately snaps back into the framed document window, and that is not good.

Another unexpected behavior in CS4 is the doing away with the right-click context menu on the top bar of an open image. In previous PS versions that brought up a very useful menu that included “Image Size”; “Canvas”; etc. That is gone.

What I really love in CS4 is the new Adjustments Panel, and once Configurator is made available, I will be able to configure the interface to my liking.