Windows Always Open With

Windows 10 is widely regarded as the best consumer version of Windows ever released. While some prior releases of Microsoft’s desktop operating system have been received with fair amounts of criticism, Windows 10 is a well-built OS that receives both security patches and major updates on a regular basis, helping to keep the “final” version of Windows stronger than ever, just four years after its launch.

Also see our article How To Speed Up Windows 10 – The Ultimate Guide

One of the things driving this popularity is the productivity features that Windows 10 makes available. Features like Timeline help to keep your productivity always flowing, from the ability to view recently-opened documents to syncing files between your computer and your smartphone. Snap has been available since Windows Vista, allowing you to easily split-screen the apps on your computer, or to resize them quickly in any shape you want. Action Center helps you to stay focused on whatever you might be working on at any given moment, giving you updates on emails, security installations, and much more. Meanwhile, Cortana allows you to launch your actions quickly and succinctly with just your voice, while also providing answers to every query you could ever dream of, and more.

If you”re looking for a way to always open an app with a fully maximized window, while wanting to make other selective apps open as normal sized and/or minimized windows, there is a simple trick to it that lets you do just that.

No operating system has every feature, however, and there’s one feature missing from Windows 10: the ability to lock windows into being the “top layer” of your desktop, displayed over everything else. This is useful in a plethora of ways, from copying information manually between windows, to keeping content open when you need it on your screen. You can watch a movie in the background of your computer while working on other projects, or you can simply keep your file browser on top of your web browser or word processor to always have access to your content. However you want to work, being able to keep your programs on the front of your computer is a massively important tool in your arsenal of computing assistants. Unfortunately, that ability isn’t in Windows 10 proper, but you can easily add it to your PC with third-party software. Let’s take a look at three of our favorites.

Always On Top: The Best, Easiest Option

Our favorite way to access this functionality is to use Always On Top, a small third-party tool that automatically configures your desktop to keep a single window on top of the program. It uses a dead-simple script to allow you to configure what window you want prioritized, and allows you to change or remove this prioritization with the press of a button. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and portable, since the file is completely self-contained in a zipped folder. Let’s take a look at this must-have utility for windows.

To grab Always On Top, you’ll want to head over to this site to download the zipped folder. Once the file is unzipped, you’ll see the application and a ReadMe file that will tell you everything you need to know about the program. As we mentioned, Always On Top is a portable application, which means nothing needs to be installed or programmed on your computer. Just unzip the file and run the application to open it on your computer.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll find that Always On top is now running in your hidden icons tray, which you can preview by clicking on the small arrow to the right of your taskbar. The icon is marked with “DI,” using white text on a black backdrop; it’s easy to find. This means the program is properly running on your computer, and you can use the app as you wish. The ReadMe file has the instructions on how to designate a specific application as the one you want to use Always On Top. With that application running, simply select the window you want to be pinned to the top of the page, and select Ctrl+ [Space] to keep it pinned to your computer. That’s it—there’s no designation or anything that appears on the window, no noises to announce something’s been pinned. But, if you click off into another window or application, you’ll find the app you had selected on your desktop doesn’t fade behind your new window, instead staying open unless purposefully minimized.

And really, that’s all there is to it. The script is automatically run in the background, and that quick keyboard shortcut is easy to use to improve your productivity in just a moment. The app is lightweight and runs well in the background, and can be closed completely with just a touch of a button right from with your desktop at the bottom of the taskbar. Always On Top is one of our favorite utilities on Windows, and well recommended for anyone who wants a simple tool for a simple job.

The Rest

No piece of software is without its fair share of flaws, and some users may find that they need more or less options depending on what they like in a hardware platform. If you tried out Always On Top and it didn’t work well for you, or of you’re just looking for something a little different, here are two additional options you might want to check out.

AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey is, essentially, a free program that allows you to write your own scripts, or to plug in scripts from others, that helps you to create macros on your computer. It’s a program used and recommended widely on the internet, for uses ranging from gaming to changing the direction of your mouse scroll. If you’re looking to pin windows to your desktop, you can do so easily with AutoHotkey—although it’s worth noting that you’ll have to manually create the script by writing code. It’s pretty easy to do, but if you’re looking for something that comes prewritten, we would suggest sticking to the easier Always On Top, which effectively comes as a pre-packaged AutoHotkey script. Regardless, here’s the steps on how to do it:

Windows Always Open With This Program

Download and install AutoHotkey if you don’t have it already.
Open the program and select File, Edit Script.
Type or paste ‘^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A’ and click Save.
Select File and Reload Script in AutoHotKey to run.

The script uses the same Ctrl + [Space] command as we saw with Always On Top to prioritize one window over the others on your desktop. You can, however, change it to something else by changing ‘^SPACE’. For example, change it to ‘#q’ to change the key to Windows key + Q. This does provide more customization than you’d otherwise get from Always On Top, but it’s also more work to use on your PC.

DeskPins

DeskPins has been around for years, since the days of Windows XP, and is still used to make it easy to place your pins on your computer. As a free and open source program, you can easily use DeskPins on any computer, and it works nearly identically to what we’ve come to expect from apps like Always On Top. To start, download and install Deskpins using the Windows 10-specific installer and run the program on your computer. With DeskPins, the utility actually works a little bit differently than the script versions of Always On Top and AutoHotkey. Click the icon in your taskbar and look for your mouse to turn int a small pin. Instead of using a keyboard shortcut, you’ll need to pin your program by clicking on the top portion of a desktop window. A small red pin icon will appear in the pinned window at the top of the page. To unpin the window, simply click this icon to turn it off.

DeskPins’ is just as easy to use as you might imagine most other programs like this, but there’s two things you should be aware of. First, the need to install the program means it may not work properly on some work computers, especially those with limits on what can and can’t be run. Second, the visual indicator is nice, but for some, an easy keyboard shortcut is all they need to access this useful utility.

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Ultimately, these three options represent the best in helping your productivity or entertainment on your Windows computer. Whether you’re looking to keep video playing in the background, or you need to watch a file transfer while editing a photo in Photoshop, it’s super easy to use these programs to help you keep track of your content on the app.

Windows doesn’t offer a built-in way for users to make a window always on top. There are many third-party tools for this, but they’re often bloated and clunky. So, let’s take a look at what works well.

While there are a lot of tools out there for making a window stay always on top, a lot of them have been around a long time and don’t work well with modern versions of Windows—or on 64-bit versions. We tested a variety of tools so we can recommend the best, most reliable ones. Whether you want to use a keyboard shortcut or a graphical menu these are the ideal ways to make a window always-on-top. And, these tools work with pretty much any version of Windows.

Windows Always Open With Windows

Another quick thing to note: there are some great apps out there that can make a window stay always on top in addition to doing other things. We’re sticking with lightweight, free tools that serve just the function we’re after, but we’ll note some of those other apps later on in the article in case you’re interested—or already using one.

With a Keyboard Shortcut: AutoHotkey

Windows Always Open With Adobe

RELATED:The Beginner’s Guide to Using an AutoHotkey Script

Using the excellent and useful AutoHotkey program, you can make a one-line script that sets your currently active window to be always on top when you press a certain key combination. The resulting script is lightweight and won’t use much resources or add unnecessary clutter to your system. You can even use AutoHotkey to compile the script to its own executable if you don’t want to keep the full AutoHotkey program running—or if you want an easy way to carry the script with you to other PCs.

First, you’ll need download and install AutoHotkey.

When that’s done, you’ll need to create a new script (if you already use AutoHotkey, feel free to add this to a current script or create a new one). To create a new script, right-click anywhere on your desktop or in a File Explorer window, point to the “New” menu, and then select the “AutoHotkey Script” option. Give the new script file whatever name you want.

Next, right-click your new AutoHotkey script, and then choose the “Edit Script” option. This opens the script for editing in Notepad, or whatever editing program you use.

In the Notepad window, paste the following line of code at the bottom. You can then save and close the script.

Windows 10 Change Always Open With

Next, double-click your script to run it. You’ll know it’s running because a green “H” logo appears in your system tray to let you know it’s running as a background process.

You can now press Ctrl+Space to set any currently active window to be always on top. Press Ctrl+Space again set the window to no longer be always on top.

And if you don’t like the Ctrl+Space combination, you can change the ^SPACE part of the script to set a new keyboard shortcut. Consult the Hotkeys documentation on AutoHotkey’s website for help.

Using a Mouse: DeskPins

If you prefer using a mouse over keyboard shortcuts, DeskPins provides a super simple way to make windows always on top by just pinning them.

First, you’ll need to download and install DeskPins. After installation, go ahead and run DeskPins. You’ll see that it adds a pin icon to your system tray.

When you have a window you want to pin to be always on top, click that system tray icon. Your pointer turns into a pin and you can then click any window to pin it so that it’s always on top. Pinned windows actually have a red pin added to the title bar, so that you can tell easily which windows are pinned and which are not.

To remove a pin from a window, move your mouse over the pin. Your pointer will show a small “X” on it to let you know you’re about to remove the pin. And if you want to remove pins from all windows you’ve pinned at once, right-click the system tray icon, and then choose the “Remove All Pins” option.

Using a System Tray Menu: TurboTop

Windows 10 Remove Always Open With This Program

If you like using your mouse, but don’t want to mess around with actually pinning windows—or have the admittedly Windows 95-looking pin buttons added to your window’s title bars—TurboTop sticks a menu system on its system tray icon so that you can make windows always on top.

After downloading and installing TurboTop, click its system tray icon once to view a list of all your open windows. Click a window’s name to make it always on top. Windows that are already always on top have a checkmark—click them again to make them no longer always on top.

Because this tool is so basic and minimal, it works well even when other, fancier applications struggle. It’s impressive how a little utility that hasn’t been updated since 2004 can still work so well thirteen years later—it’s a testament to how cleanly this program does its work.

Without Installing Anything Extra: Built-in App Options

Many apps have built-in options so that you can set their windows to become always on top. You often find these options in media players, system utilities, and other tools that you might want to see all the time. Programs that accept plug-ins may also have an always on top plugin you can install.

For example, here’s how to enable the built-in always on top option in some popular programs:

VLC: Click Video > Always on top.
iTunes: Click the menu button at the top-left corner of the iTunes window and select Preferences. Click the Advanced tab and enable the “Keep MiniPlayer on top of all other windows” option or the “Keep movie window on top of all other windows” option. Switch to the MiniPlayer window by clicking the menu button and selecting Switch to MiniPlayer.
Windows Media Player: Click Organize > Options. Select the Player tab and enable the “Keep Now Playing on top of other windows” checkbox.
Firefox: Install the Always on Top add-on. Once you have, press Alt and click View > Always on Top. You can also just press Ctrl+Alt+T to make the current Firefox window always-on-top.
Pidgin: Click Tools > Plugins in the Buddy List window. Enable the included Windows Pidgin Options plugin, click Configure Plugin, and set a “Keep Buddy List window on top” preference.
Process Explorer: Click Options > Always on Top.

In addition to these apps, some bigger, more fully-featured window and desktop utilities also offer the ability to make windows always on top. DisplayFusion, for example, offers the feature (even in its free version), but also provides tools for managing multiple monitors, controlling the desktop and windows in all kinds of ways, and even tweaking other Windows settings. Actual Window Manager offers the feature, too, and also adds over 50 other desktop management tools. If you already use one of those—or are interested in those other features—then by all means give them a try.