How to keep any Windows program “always on top”

by Ross McKillop on April 9, 2008

Windows

Using the very aptly named (and free) AlwaysOnTop application, you can set any Windows program to remain “on top” of all the others.

The installation is straight forward - unzip the contents of the .zip file to a temporary folder, and run setup.exe. Once you’re done, run the AlwaysOnTop program from your Start menu. It will appear as an icon in your System Tray.

Note: you may have noticed on the AlwaysOnTop home page that this program works on Windows 95/NT. I can confirm it works perfectly well in XP. Not so sure about Vista (please comment if you try it out on Vista).

Right-click the AlwaysOnTop icon in your System Tray and pick one or more running programs to always remain in the foreground. In the example screenshot below, I opted to have a Windows Command box remain on top of all my other programs.

alwaysontop in action

AlwaysOnTop uses a fairly minimal amount of system resources, so if you work better when certain programs are always in the foreground, this app is for you.

alwaysontop in the task manager
click to enlarge

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    { 1 trackback }

    Gaceta Digital» Blog Archive » Cómo mantener una ventana en primer plano en Windows
    07.14.08 at 7:09 am

    { 5 comments… read them below or add one }

    1 jared 04.17.08 at 7:46 pm

    I find a program called Xneat to be much more useful, not only can you set each window to be on top, you can also turn on transparency for it, send it to the system tray, and more.

    http://www.xneat.com/windows-manager/

    2 Lakario 07.18.08 at 7:17 am

    Seems to work on Vista (I ran it in Windows XP compatibility, but I’m not sure if that was necessary).

    It’s a little sporadic in its functionality, but it appears to work fairly well.

    3 blueck 07.30.08 at 11:03 pm

    This app works great in Vista too. Thanks for the tip.

    4 Kevin 09.20.08 at 7:01 pm

    Doesn’t work on Vista x64, at least not for me.

    5 yazid 09.21.08 at 6:47 am

    i have tried software always on top to vista x64 . it is very well. i can use tv MSI usb and i can set tv screen always on top . thank u very much

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