How to keep a note on top of a window in Windows 11

Windows 11 has no built-in way to attach a note to one particular window. You can keep a note window above everything else, but that puts it on top of every app, not the one it is about. To keep a note on top of a specific window, document or browser tab, and nowhere else, you need an app that follows which window is in front.

That is exactly what we built TackNote for Windows to do. Press Ctrl + Alt + N with a window in front and the note is tacked to it: it sits on that window, moves when the window moves, and hides the moment you switch to something else. TackNote for Windows does this, and this post explains how it works and where the approach has limits.

Always on top is not the same as on top of one window

Most advice for this search says the same thing: make the note window "always on top." That solves half the problem. The note stays visible, but it stays visible over everything. The reminder about a client's invoice floats over your code editor, your video call and the game you are playing on a Friday night. After a week, the note has become part of the furniture, and your eyes skip over it.

What people usually want is narrower. A note about this spreadsheet should appear when this spreadsheet is open, and get out of the way when it is not. That is a different job from staying on top, and it needs the app to know which window you are looking at.

Option 1: pin the whole note window on top

If an always-on-top note is enough for you, Windows can already do it with free tools. Microsoft PowerToys includes an Always On Top utility: press Win + Ctrl + T on any window, including a note, and it stays above the rest until you press the shortcut again. That works well for one short note you want in view for an afternoon.

The limit is the one above: a pinned window has no idea what you are working on. It is on top of everything or nothing.

Option 2: tack the note to the window itself

TackNote for Windows takes the other approach. Each note belongs to a window, and TackNote watches which window is in front:

1. Bring the window forward. A Word document, an Excel workbook, a folder in File Explorer, a browser tab, anything with a window.
2. Press Ctrl + Alt + N. A new note appears in the top-right corner of that window, ready for typing.
3. Work as usual. Move or resize the window and the note moves with it. Switch to another window and the note hides. Come back and it is there again, in the same spot on that window.

A note also hides when its window is minimized or sits on another virtual desktop, because it only shows while its window is actually on screen and in front. If the desktop itself is in front when you press the shortcut, there is no window to tack to, so TackNote makes a desktop note instead.

Need more than one note on the same window? Ctrl + Alt + Shift + N stacks another note onto the note that is already there, like a second sheet on the same pin. Every shortcut can be changed in Settings.

How TackNote tells one window from another

A note remembers two things: the app, and the window's title. That is enough for most work, because most Windows apps put the open document's name in the title bar. Two workbooks open in Excel are two windows with two different titles, so each gets its own note.

Sometimes you want the opposite, one note for every window of an app. For apps built around documents, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Notepad, Visual Studio Code, Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve, TackNote can ask each time whether a new note belongs to the open document or to the whole app. If you always want the same answer, set Document scope in Settings to "Always the specific document" or "Always the whole app."

Browser tabs

This is where tacking pays off most. A browser window's title is the title of its active tab, so a note tacked in a browser belongs to that tab. Switch tabs and the note hides. Switch back and it returns. TackNote strips the browser's own name from the title, so the note belongs to the page rather than to "Google Chrome." It works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi and several other Chromium and Firefox based browsers.

When you tack a note to a tab, TackNote also reads the page address from the address bar. If that tab is closed later, jumping to the note from TackBoard reopens the page. We covered the same idea on the Mac in how to pin a note to a browser tab.

Where this approach has limits

Matching by title is simple and fast, and it is honest to say where it falls short:

• Titles that change. If you rename a file, or a page puts a changing count in its title (an inbox showing unread messages, for example), the note waits for the old title. Use Re-stick to move it onto the window as it is now.
• Two windows with the same title. Two tabs showing pages with the same title share the same note, because TackNote cannot tell them apart.
• A window that is closed. The note is not lost. It stays on TackBoard, and jumping to it brings the window forward, reopens the file or folder when TackNote knows where it is, or starts the app and tells you which window the note belongs to.

When you really do want a note over everything

Some notes are not about one window: today's three priorities, a phone number you need all morning. For those, Ctrl + Alt + F makes a desktop note that is not tied to any window. Each desktop note can either stick to the desktop behind your windows or float above all of them, and Settings lets you pick a default for new ones. On Windows, a desktop note can also follow you across virtual desktops or live on just one, which we explain in sticky notes on virtual desktops.

The rest of the note is the same whichever kind you use: checklists, a split view, sketches, voice memos, reminders that arrive as Windows notifications, and private notes that stay hidden until you unlock them with Windows Hello or your Windows password. Notes are stored encrypted on your PC.

Also on a Mac?

TackNote started on the Mac, where it tacks notes to windows, tabs, documents and Finder folders the same way. One license covers up to three computers, Mac or Windows. If you are choosing an app for a Mac, our honest comparison of Mac sticky notes apps is the place to start, and TackNote for Mac is available now.