When working with multiple windows in Windows 10, you might want to keep a window always on top for easy reference. Learn three different ways of accomplishing this.
When you are working in Windows with limited screen space, it’s useful to have certain windows stay on top of others. Some programs in Windows automatically incorporate this “always on top” feature, but most programs don’t, and Windows doesn’t include this feature either.
Today we’ll cover three ways to easily add the “always on top” feature to every single program in Windows.
1. Use a Keyboard Shortcut with an Always on Top AutoHotkey Script
AutoHotkey is a free program that allows you to create scripts to perform multiple actions with a single keyboard shortcut. It runs in the background and sits in the system tray.
We’re going to use AutoHotkey to create a script that will keep a selected window on top of all others when you press Ctrl + Spacebar when that window is active. We’ll show you the script and explain how it works. But we’ll also provide a downloadable AutoHotkey script file you can use.
Download and install AutoHotkey and then run it.
Download the AlwaysOnTop.ahk script file, extract the .zip file, and put the script in a folder on your hard drive that won’t be moved or deleted.
The script contains some comments and then the following command:
^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A
This command sets the currently active window to always be on top when you press Ctrl + Spacebar. If you’d rather use a different key combination, you can change the first part of the command, “^SPACE“. The “^” character represents the Ctrl key. You’ll find the symbols to use for other hotkeys in the Hotkey Modifier Symbols section on this AutoHotkey help page.
You can put the script in the Windows startup folder (%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup), so it starts automatically when Windows starts.
The AutoHotkey script stays in the system tray.
To make the active window always on top, press Ctrl + Spacebar (or the keyboard shortcut you assigned). Press the keyboard shortcut again to disable “always on top” for the active window.
For script options, right-click on the AutoHotkey icon in the system tray.
2. Use Your Mouse with DeskPins
DeskPins provides pins you can grab and use to keep any window on top of all other windows. The program sits in the system tray and uses minimal resources.
Download and install DeskPins. Run the program, right-click the icon in the system tray, and select Options to change the Pins, Autopin, and Hotkeys settings.
On the Pins tab, you can change the color of the pins. The Tracking rate controls how often each pin checks the pinned window’s position and state. Lower values make the pins more responsive. You can enter any number from 10 to 1000 msec (milliseconds).
If you have an older computer, you may want to increase the Tracking rate number to avoid slowing down your computer.
You can also choose Single click or Double click under Tray Icon Activation to indicate how you get pins from the DeskPins system tray icon. The default is Single click.
You can have DeskPins automatically pin certain types of windows using rules on the Autopin tab.
Check the Enable box and then click Add to add a new rule. Use the checkboxes next to the rules to enable and disable individual rules.
Click Help to access the DeskPins help file for more information about automatically pinning windows.
DeskPins provides default shortcuts for entering pin mode and toggling the active window pin. You can change these shortcuts on the Hotkeys tab.
To pin a window on top, click (or double-click, depending on the setting) the DeskPins icon in the system tray.
Then, click the title bar on the window you want to keep always on top.
A pin displays on the title bar of the chosen window in the color you specified, or in the default color red.
Click the pin again to disable always on top for the window.
3. Use a System Tray Menu with TurboTop
TurboTop also sits in your system tray like DeskPins. But it operates differently.
Download and install TurboTop. Then, run the program.
To keep a window always on top, click the TurboTop icon in the system tray. A list of all open windows displays. Select the title of the window you want.
Any windows you choose to be always on top are indicated with a checkmark on the TurboTop menu.
To stop keeping a window always on top, click the TurboTop icon in the system tray and select that window again, so there’s no checkmark next to the window name on the menu.
Bring the Always-on-Top Feature to All Windows
Whether you like using keyboard shortcuts or prefer using the mouse, there’s an easy solution for keeping windows always on top. If you’ve found other options for keeping windows always on top, let us know in the comments.
If you are like me and have a ton of windows open on your desktop, you might be looking for an app that lets you pin a window that stays on top of everything. I usually keep my text editor on top of all the windows while doing research work. It helps make my workflow much more productive. We have been waiting for a built-in always-on-top feature in Windows for the longest time, but even Microsoft’s latest desktop OS, Windows 11, does not come with it. Nevertheless, we have found two easy ways to keep a window always-on-top in Windows 11. And well, one of the solutions comes directly from Microsoft. So without any wait, let’s go through the tutorial.
As mentioned above, we have added two nifty methods to keep a window always-on-top on Windows 11. Both the programs are free and work great on Windows 11. You can expand the table below and move to the program you wish to check out.
Method 1: Keep a Window Always-on-Top with Microsoft PowerToys
Microsoft has released an update for PowerToys that brings the much-needed Always-on-top feature to Windows 11. The best part is that instead of manually pinning a window, PowerToys lets you pin a window on top with a keyboard shortcut. So yeah, you can enable always-on-top for a particular window in a jiffy and turn it off with ease. Here is how to set it up.
1. First, go ahead and download PowerToys from its GitHub page. You should download the latest EXE file. Apart from that, you can also install PowerToys from Microsoft Store (Free).
2. After the installation, open PowerToys from the Start menu. Then, move to the “Always On Top” section from the left sidebar and turn on the toggle. That’s it.
3. To test the feature, select a window and press “Windows + Shift + T” simultaneously, and that window will be pinned on top right away. That’s amazing, right? To turn it off, press the same shortcut, and you are done. By the way, you can also pin multiple windows on top.
4. In case you don’t like the big bold borders around the window, you can disable it from PowerToys. Toggle off the “Show a border around the pinned window” feature. There is also an option to change the hotkey, disable the sound, and add apps to be excluded from pinning on top. As a side note, if you love PowerToys, you can also use it to get a universal mute switch on Windows 11.
Method 2: Keep a Window Always-on-Top with DeskPins
Apart from PowerToys, there is the DeskPins app that does the job of pinning windows on top quite well. It’s a free and open-source app that is lightweight (just 104KB in size) with support for multiple window pinning and a keyboard shortcut. Simply follow the below instructions to set it up.
1. Head over to this link and download DeskPins on your Windows 11 PC. After that, install the program.
2. Next, open the program from the Start menu. You will find the app running under the System tray.
3. Click on it, and the mouse cursor will turn into a pin. Click on the window you wish to pin on top, and there you have it. You have now successfully pinned a window always-on-top using this app.
4. To remove the pinned window, hover your mouse on the pin and click the cross button that appears.
5. There are also keyboard shortcuts available here. Press “Ctrl +F11” to pin a window on top and press “Ctrl + F12” to disable it. You can customize the shortcuts by right-clicking on the app and navigating to “Options -> Hotkeys”.
Pin a Window on Top in Windows 11 with Ease
So these are the two best ways to pin any window always-on-top in Windows 11. Earlier, I was using the third-party program, but with the latest release of PowerToys, things have changed significantly. Microsoft’s implementation is frictionless, and in my brief testing, it worked seamlessly on my Windows 11 laptop. Anyway, that is all from us. If you are looking for the best live wallpaper apps for Windows 11, check our linked list. And in case you want to diagnose your PC to fix programs or remove malware, learn how to start Windows 11 in safe mode. Lastly, if you have any questions, comment them down below, and we will help you out.
24.07.2023
К большому сожалению, Windows почему-то не предлагает штатные средства для того, чтобы можно было закрепить любое окно поверх остальных. Да, некоторые программы (например, AIMP или VLC) имеют опцию «всегда сверху», доступную через настройки, но таких программ очень мало. Остается решать данную проблему своими силами.
- Недостатки софта для закрепления окон
- «Always on top» при помощи AutoHotkey
- Создание скрипта
- Проверка работы скрипта
- Ставим скрипт в автозагрузку
- Краткий FAQ по AutoHotkey
Недостатки софта для закрепления окон
Существует целый ряд софта, как платного, так и бесплатного для того, чтобы закрепить любое окно поверх всех остальных окон в Windows. Наиболее популярными являются:
- DeskPins
- TurboTop
- Microsoft PowerToys
- OnTopper
- PinWin
Однако эти решения имеют недостатки, из-за которых лично я, исходя из своего опыта, не рекомендую ими пользоваться. Например, DeskPins последний раз обновлялась в феврале 2015 года, TurboTop – в 2016. Я пользовался утилитой DeskPins на десятке много лет, пока не столкнулся с тем, что она начала глючить и некорректно себя вести с окнами самых разных программ.
Тогда я перешел на Microsoft PowerToys, которая имеет функцию закрепления любого окна поверх других. Однако это решение я считаю неоптимальным, потому что это все равно как устанавливать Photoshop всего лишь для того, чтобы просто изменить размер одной картинки. Программа PowerToys весит более двухсот мегабайт и помимо «always on top» имеет еще два десятка других возможностей (о них я подробно рассказывал), большинством из которых вы скорее всего никогда не будете пользоваться. Зачем захламлять жесткий диск и замедлять систему лишними трудоемкими процессами, постоянно висящими в памяти?
Оптимальным решением лично я считаю использование утилиты AutoHotkey, про которую я тоже уже рассказывал ранее. Она весит чуть более 3 Мб и позволяет запускать выполнение любых действий в Windows путем нажатия шоткатов. Например, изменить язык раскладки клавиатуры нажатием всего одной клавиши. И всё это доступно бесплатно любому пользователю.
«Always on top» при помощи AutoHotkey
Прямо сейчас я расскажу, как при помощи AutoHotkey можно написать небольшой скрипт, чтобы одним нажатием определенных сочетаний клавиш на клавиатуре закрепить любое открытое окно поверх других.
Итак, для начала надо скачать утилиту AutoHotkey на свой компьютер и установить её (выбирайте для скачивания версию 1.1.).
Создание скрипта
Для создания нового скрипта надо сделать следующие:
- Кликните правой клавишей мыши в любом месте рабочего стола
- Выберите «Создать – AutoHotkey Script»
- Можно присвоить скрипту любое имя либо оставить по умолчанию
Откройте созданный скрипт в любом текстовом редакторе, например Блокноте. Скопируйте и вставьте в него следующую запись:
^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A
Должно получиться вот так:
Сохраните скрипт (CTRL + S) и запустите его двойным кликом мыши. Вы будете знать, что скрипт работает, по соответствующему значку на панели задач.
Проверка работы скрипта
- Запустите любую программу
- Сделайте её окно активным (оно должно быть на переднем плане, поверх всех остальных)
- Нажмите на клавиатуре сочетание клавиш CTRL + Пробел
- Окно будет закреплено поверх всех других окон
- Чтобы открепить окно, снова нажмите CTRL + Пробел
Отныне при помощи указанного сочетания клавиш вы можете нажать настроить любое активное в данный момент окно любой программы таким образом, чтобы оно всегда было сверху.
Ставим скрипт в автозагрузку
Последнее, что нужно сделать – поместить файл созданного нами скрипта в автозагрузку, чтобы он запускался автоматически при каждом старте Windows. Для этого переносим файл в папку C:\Пользователи\ИмяПользователя\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Не забудьте включить в проводнике отображение скрытых элементов, чтобы найти указанные выше системные папки.
Краткий FAQ
Сколько памяти потребляет скрипт для закрепления окон?
AutoHotkey очень нетребовательна к ресурсам компьютера и потребляет в фоне очень мало оперативной памяти – чуть более 1 Мб. Данный процесс никак не замедляет работу ПК, поэтому программу можно спокойно использовать даже на самых слабых машинах.
Можно ли дополнить уже имеющийся скрипт AutoHotkey?
Что делать, если вы уже знакомы с программой AutoHotkey и давно пользуетесь каким-либо скриптом? Создавать новый файл скрипта для функции «всегда сверху»? Нет, в этом нет необходимости. Просто дополните уже имеющийся у вас скрипт приведенной выше записью для закрепления окон.
Вот пример того, как выглядит мой файл:
Иными словами, в одном файле вы можете прописать столько разных скриптов сколько нужно — их выполнение не будет конфликтовать друг с другом.
Можно ли изменить сочетание клавиш для расположения поверх других окон?
Если вам не нравится сочетание Ctrl+Space, вы можете задать любые другие клавиши. Для этого рекомендую изучить документацию AutoHotkey по этому вопросу. https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/v1/KeyList.htm
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С 2011 г. пишу обзоры полезных онлайн сервисов и сайтов, программ для ПК.
Интересуюсь всем, что происходит в Интернет, и с удовольствием рассказываю об этом своим читателям.
Download Windows Speedup Tool to fix errors and make PC run faster
Do you like the Always On Top feature provided by some apps and want this feature in other apps too? Well, you can make any window stay at the top of other windows. This post discusses a number of tools that let you do so. Keeping a window on top comes with a lot of benefits. You can continue doing your work while also keeping an eye on other windows as well.
Here are a few free tools that can help you keep a window Always on Top on your Windows 11/10 PC:
- Microsoft PowerToys
- Window TopMost Control
- PinWin
- PinWin – Pin On Top
- TurboTop
- OnTopReplica
- DeskPins
- AOT Extension for Chrome & Firefox
- WindowTop
- OnTopper
- TopMostFriend
- PinMe.
1] Microsoft PowerToys
You can pin a window and make the program or app stay Always On Top using Microsoft PowerToys.
Once you have installed PowerToys, you need to use the Win+Ctrl+T hotkey!
2] Window TopMost Control
TopMost Control can make any program window stick over other program windows. To make a window always on Top you have four options:
- Select a window and double-click to the TopMost Control icon in the system tray
- Select a window and use Ctrl+Alt+Space Keyboard shortcuts
- Use Windows List in the system tray menu
- Use CMD.
Get it here.
3] PinWin
PinWin is a very simple and intuitive app that allows you to make any 3rd party window remain “always-on-top”. It will appear on top of other windows at all times. Available here.
4] PinWin – Pin On Top
PinWin – Pin On Top is another minimal Windows system tray application that allows you to pin any windows to the top of the screen with one click. Available here.
5] TurboTop
TurboTop is, again a small utility that runs from the system tray. It lets you choose the window that you want to keep on top and that is all. The window would stick to the top while you do your work. There are no hotkeys or customizations possible with this tool. TurboTop is very simple to use and just does what it says. Click here to download TurboTop.
6] OnTopReplica
OnTopReplica is a great tool that creates a real-time clone of a specified window using DWM Thumbnails and the Windows Forms Aero library. You can create a clone by selecting a Window or by specifying an area from your screen. You can easily resize the window as per your requirement and tweak a few other settings as well. You can set the clone opacity and even lock its position on the screen. To facilitate the task, you can even choose hotkeys to clone the screen and also for showing/hiding the cloned window. Click here to download OnTopReplica.
7] DeskPins
DeskPins is another lightweight tool that can force any running programs to stay on top of others. It is available here.
8] AOT Extension for Firefox
AOT a.k.a. Always on Top extension for lets you keep any webpage on top of all other windows. The extension comes in handy when you are manually doing some data entry on a webpage and minimizing and then maximizing windows is a pain. It is available for Mozilla Firefox which can be downloaded from here.
9] WindowTop
You might want also to check out WindowTop. It is a free utility for Windows that lets you pin an open window on top of others. You can control opacity, click-through windows, enable Dark Mode & Shrink the open applications.
10] OnTopper
OnTopper is another free tool available on SourceForge that lets you pin a program window topmost.
Related: How to enable Always on Top for Windows Terminal.
11] TopMostFriend
This free utility lets you quickly force any program to be always on top. It should work on any version of Windows that supports .NET Framework 4.0 and is available for download from Github.
12] PinMe
PinMe lets you pin a window Always On Top, change the transparency level, capture windows, and offer basic statistics on your PC. It is available here.
Did we miss any?
How do I pin a window always on top in Windows?
You can pin a window and make the program or app stay Always On Top using Microsoft PowerToys.
Once you have installed PowerToys, you need to use the Win+Ctrl+T hotkey!
How do I pin a Chrome window to the top in Windows?
You can use a browser extension or a free tool to do this as mentioned in this post. If you want to pin a Chrome tab, then right-click the tab and select Pin.
Lavish loves to follow up on the latest happenings in technology. He loves to try out new Windows-based software and gadgets and is currently learning JAVA. He loves to develop new software for Windows. Creating a System Restore Point first before installing a new software is always recommended, he feels.
When working with multiple windows, it is natural that you might want to pin a window and keep it always on top. This is especially true for small screens with limited screen real-estate.
Generally, some programs have a dedicated option to stay on top of other windows. The Windows 10 Calculator is a good example. It has a dedicated button to pin it on top on top of the other windows. However, most programs don’t have this option and even Windows doesn’t provide one. The good thing is, you can create your own option to force a window to be always on top. It doesn’t matter if you want to keep Chrome always on top, or the sticky notes always on top.
All you have to do is toggle the option and the window will be pinned to on top of other windows.
With AutoHotKey, you can assign the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Space to keep a window always on top. Let me show you how.
- Download and install AutoHotKey.
- On the desktop, right-click and select “New → Text document”.
- Name the file as “alwayOnTop.ahk”. It is important that you replace the .txt extension with .ahk.
- Right-click on the file and select “Edit”.
- In the file, copy and paste the below script.
;Always on Top (Shift + Ctrl + Space) ^+SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A Return
- Press Ctrl + S keyboard shortcut to save the file.
- Close the file.
Now, double-click on the file to run the script. As long as the script is running in the background, you can set any window on top by press the Ctrl + Shift + Space keyboard shortcut. To normalize the window behavior, select the window and press the same keyboard shortcut again.
If you want to customize the keyboard shortcut, here’s a helpful page you can follow.
Use WindowTop Toolbar to Pin Windows
WindowTop is a simple and portable software to pin any window on top of the other windows. What’s special about WindowTop is that it has a few other interesting features like the ability to change the opacity of a target window and enable dark mode. If you don’t like dealing with scripts then WindowTop is a pretty good choice. These additional features are available only to pro users though.
1. First download WindowTop, extract it, go to the Portable folder in it, and double click on the “WindowTop.exe” file.
2. As soon as you open the application, all windows will have a new drop-down menu that appears when you hover over the title bar.
3. Expand the drop-down menu and select the “Set Top” option to keep a window always on top.
To reset the window, click on the “Set Top” option again.
Use TurboTop Taskbar Icon to Make a Window Stay on Top
If you are looking for a much simpler software then TurboTop is the one. Just go here, download TurboTo and install like any other software. Once installed, launch TurboTop from the start menu and click on the taskbar icon.
You will see a list of all the available app windows you can set on top. Just select the window you want to pin on top.
That is it. It is that simple to keep a window on top.
If you like this article then you might also like to how to change mouse pointer color and size.