3 Ways to Keep a Window Always on Top on Windows 10

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:

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 (milliseonds).

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 check boxes 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 check mark 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 check mark 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.

How do I force programs to open on top in Windows 7?

Replies (4) 

Go to the Microsoft Power Toys website (see link in Resources below) and download tweakui.exe.

Double click on tweakui.exe to run it and install Tweak UI.

Run Tweak UI from the «Start» menu once installation is complete.

Double-click on «General» in the left column to expand the list of general options. Click on «Focus» in the expanded list.

Uncheck the box next to «Prevent programs from stealing focus.»

Click the «OK» button to accept the changes and close the utility.

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According to the Windows 7 Compatibility Center Tweak UI 2.0 is not compatible with Windows 7.

If you do a search on Internet there are several utilities that will work with Windows 7 and keep applications/programs always on top when opening.
There is not an built-in program in Windows 7 that I am aware of to keep programs on top.

Marilyn
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think

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My problem is related, but not identical. I would like have «Save As» windows open on top.

We often create pdf files that ask for a save path. We recently upgraded from XP. Now Windows 7 (64-bit) the «Save As» window opens underneath. I have to track it down to find it. It seems a «Save As» window should automatically have top-level priority.

I occasionally encounter this problem with error notification windows (most recently on MS Word 2010 on a «that file is already open» message. I didn’t even know Word was open because it had opened a notification window with a questions on the bottom and had not yet displayed an icon in the Taskbar. I would think those kind of notifications should also have top-level priority.

Force a Window to Stay On Top of Other Windows

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Reader «Shug49» wrote in with this question:

«I use a password storage program that works great, but has one flaw: When it’s in use it won’t stay on top of other open windows. How can I keep it visible at all times?»

You’d think Windows would have a «stay on top» option, but, alas, it doesn’t. That leaves you with two options: resize your other windows to create an always-visible «opening» for your password manager, or find a utility that forces selected windows to stay on top.

Always On Top forces selected windows to stay on top. It’s free, it’s easy, and it works. I tested it on my Windows 7 x64 machine.

Just run the utility, click the window you want to keep on top, then press Ctrl-Space. Presto! Repeat as necessary with any other windows you want to keep on top. To turn off the function, click the window again and press Ctrl-Space again.

Interestingly, this program was created by Amit Agarwal using Autohotkey and a single line of code. Clever!

Make a window stay Always On Top in Windows 10

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.

Make a window stay Always On Top

Here are a few free tools that can help you achieve this on your Windows 10/8/7 PC:

1. TurboTop
2. OnTopReplica
3. Always On Top
4. DeskPins
5. AOT Extension for Chrome & Firefox
6. WindowTop
7. PinWin
8. PinWin – Pin On Top
9. OnTopper
10. PinMe
11. Window TopMost Control
12. TopMostFriend.

Let us take a look at them.

1] 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 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.

2] 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.

3] Always On Top

Always On Top is a small little utility that lets you keep any window in the foreground. You just need to download the application, run it and press the hotkey. Always On Top does not feature any other imaging functionalities as such but still the tool makes it easier to keep windows on top. It makes the entire task a lot easier and faster. All you need to do is select the window and then hit ‘Ctrl + Space’ from your keyboard, and the window will stay there as it is on top of all other windows. Click here to download Always On Top.

4] DeskPins

DeskPins is another lightweight tool that can force any running programs to stay on top of others. It is available here.

5] AOT Extension for Chrome & Firefox

AOT a.k.a. Always on Top extension for Google Chrome lets you keep any webpage on top of all other windows. The extension comes handy when you are manually doing some data entry on a webpage and minimizing and then maximizing windows is a pain. To use the extension you need to enable Panels from ‘chrome://flags’. To set a webpage on top you just need to open the webpage in Google Chrome, then right-click and then select ‘Always On Top’. The webpage will be opened in a new customized window that would always stay on top. Click here to download AOT Chrome Extension. A similar extension is also available for Mozilla Firefox that can be downloaded from here.

UPDATE: The Chrome Extension AOT has been discontinued. It is still available for Firefox.

6] 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.

7] 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.

8] 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.

9] OnTopper

OnTopper is another free tool available on SourceForge that lets you pin a program window topmost.

10] PinMe

PinMe lets you pin a window Always On Top, change transparency level, capture windows, and offer basic statistics on your PC.

11] 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 system tray menu
• Use CMD.

12] 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.