There is a way..sort of
Get a hack called screenInAWindow (I think thats the name)
What it does is let you peek (from WB) at any program behing the WB screen..............it even lets you control it.......its kind of Like RemoteDesktop or VNC ecxept right on your own computer :-)
its cool......its like having hole in your WorkBench to see what program is running..or the progress of a rendering if thats what your doing.
theres a few hacks that do this.