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I am looking for a stable way to keep any window 'always on top' on OSX.

Afloat, an app that does that requires SIMBL/easySIMBL, which it seems is not very stable.

Are there any better solutions? It's actually surprising that there is no native way to implement this.

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13 Answers 13

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I'll note that the iOS Simulator has the option Stay On Top (formerly called Stay in Front). Extremely useful functionality, and proves that there are Apple-supported and sanctioned ways to achieve this behavior.

Might be worth opening a radar, especially for adding to Terminal.

You can duplicate my radar:

Bug ID 27430873: Add "Stay in Front" option to Terminal windows.

Stay in Front option in iOS Simulator

Apple's Activity Monitor app similarly has the option Keep CPU Windows on Top that floats the small CPU graphs on top of all other apps' windows:

Activity Monitor > Window > Keep CPU Windows on Top

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  • 4
    What is this iOS simulator? Is it like an emulator? I have been looking for one.
    – voices
    Commented Mar 4, 2017 at 12:54
  • 1
    @tjt263 the iOS simulator is bundled with Xcode and mainly used to develop iOS apps
    – pkamb
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 6:36
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    Oh ok. What's a radar? Like a bug report?
    – voices
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 8:14
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    This functionality is also shown in the pre-installed 'Activity Monitor' - if you go to the 'Window' menu, you'll see an option to 'Keep CPU Windows on Top' - so it does indeed seem like there's an official Apple way to do this. (This is what I see on 10.13.2)
    – keybits
    Commented Dec 15, 2017 at 11:48
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    Oh, Apple :( ... Keep CPU Windows on Top doesn't even work, in Mojave, although the option is still present in the menu. Another bug :/
    – TryTryAgain
    Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 6:45
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If you are looking to do this just for a say an internet browser window you could look at the open source Helium app. It's free, and you can also download the source and compile your own version if you want.

It's basically an internet browser that always floats above all other windows. Helium App

EDIT:

There's also a newer app from the Apple Mac App Store called Fluid Browser that will do this same thing. It does cost a couple of $s, but it works excellently and has a few more features than Helium (as of 7/6/2016). So you now have two different apps to choose from.

Fluid Browser

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  • I did not like the Fluid Browser experience. Yes, it has a few more features but it's pretty buggy and cumbersome. Helium is very lightweight but does the job.
    – P A N
    Commented Nov 1, 2016 at 13:21
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    Can you block ads in Helium or Fluid?
    – powder366
    Commented Feb 5, 2017 at 12:33
  • How do you get the fluid browser on top? It just makes it a launcher. What the hell.
    – mjs
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 7:38
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If you are a developer and your SIP is disabled (csrutil) one can change level property of NSWindow using lldb. Once you attach to process (i.e. App Store) in XCode just type:

(lldb) e NSWindow *$window = [(NSArray *)[NSApp windows] firstObject]
(lldb) po $window
<NSWindow: 0x600000d64200>

(lldb) po [$window setLevel:3]
resume debugging

PS: If app has multiple windows get the correct one using command 

(lldb) po [NSApp windows]

To return back just close window or use

(lldb) po [$window setLevel:0]

enter image description here enter image description here

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    This is pretty neat, I wonder if there is an equally simple way to adjust transparency?
    – Steven Lu
    Commented Mar 26, 2020 at 7:29
  • This is a nice proof of concept, but I don't like the fact, that we have to disable SIB to get the desired effect. It's hard to believe that this is not possible in an easier fashion. I guess this is what the slogan "Think different" is all about, once more ...
    – Martin Braun
    Commented Apr 23, 2021 at 12:58
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If you're looking to watch video while you browse or use other applications, you can use the Picture-in-Picture Extension (by Google) for Chrome.

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    Oh my gosh this is better than I could have hoped for. Just wanted Netflix playing in the corner while I work. I love that the browser window frame disappears but wish Netflix's back & forward buttons and subtitles stayed
    – velkoon
    Commented Mar 23, 2020 at 2:09
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    Videos? The issue is web development. I need a full browser or any window really to stay on top.
    – mjs
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 7:33
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I've just given up on mySIMBLE and afloat. Fenêtre is a paid for app with a free lite version that works really well.

I use it to play videos window in window while I work or to keep online instructions on top. Not sure what you want to use it for?

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  • Keeps insisting on repositioning itself on every browser click. Annoying as hell. Other than was promising but can not use now. Forcing it to a particular place is not a good option.
    – mjs
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 7:30
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Full disclosure, I am the developer of the app.

My app lets you float multiple windows consisting of images, videos, pdfs, text based files, websites, YouTube/Netflix/Vimeo/Twitch etc:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/floating-picture-in-picture/id1508833245

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  • How about a browser?
    – mjs
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 7:32
  • Just checked out your app. Looks like the best replacement yet now that Helium is no longer maintained and buggy. I may very likely buy this. A question, btw: back in Helium you could resize content without resizing the window. For example making text bigger without making window bigger. Would you be adding that in?
    – RexYuan
    Commented Nov 11, 2022 at 21:47
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    @RexYuan could you email me from the app if I miss your message? As for the resize content feature, I have been thinking of adding keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+ and Ctrl- to do that. What do you think?
    – sudoExclamationExclamation
    Commented Nov 13, 2022 at 23:09
  • @sudoExclaimationExclaimation Sent you an email. Ctrl or cmd +/- commands sound very nice. Thanks for considering the feedback!
    – RexYuan
    Commented Nov 16, 2022 at 16:35
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    @MartinBraun Thanks. I will look into doing that too.
    – sudoExclamationExclamation
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 2:13
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If you only really want/need "stay on top" functionality for your Terminal.app window (like myself), there is a Quake/Guake-style drop-down visor, SIMBL plug-in available that supports being pinned to the foreground; TotalTerminal.

So it's possible, despite the common misconception that it's not.

As of MacOS 10.11 (El Capitan), to install/run TotalTerminal, you might need to disable System Integrity Protection:

csrutil enable --without debug

It's no longer open source, but the last open source implementation is still available on GitHub. So if you're inclined to, you could investigate exactly how it's achieved. I emailed the developer to ask, but it's been so long since they worked on it, they couldn't (or wouldn't?) really tell me.

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    TotalTerminal is no longer maintained these days. I ended up switching to iTerm to get the same behavior: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/48796/…
    – André Morujão
    Commented Jul 4, 2017 at 9:25
  • That's right, I wouldn't suggest using it. But if someone is motivated to implement their own solution, it might be worth browsing the linked source code.
    – voices
    Commented Jul 6, 2017 at 0:11
  • For floating terminal, I am using Helium with gotty. gotty allows you to open a terminal in web browser and Helium is a floating web browser.
    – wesley6j
    Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 14:25
  • You really, really, really, and I really really mean really do, need to note that you should re-enable SIP after doing what you document.
    – Pryftan
    Commented Feb 23, 2019 at 16:25
  • @Pryftan nah, SIP is for pussies.
    – voices
    Commented Feb 24, 2019 at 8:42
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BetterTouchTool just added support for keeping a window on top (the "Pin/Unpin Focused Window To Float On Top" action). I can't comment, yet, on how stable that particular feature is. I just enabled it today. Works well so far.

BetterTouchTool is not a free tool, but not expensive and is worth every penny! It does everything.

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  • Unfortunately, this will not float the window over full screen apps.
    – Martin Braun
    Commented Oct 24, 2023 at 0:18
  • Spent about an hour researching and trying to do this today and better touch tool, while not perfect and a bit clunky to setup, was the best option I found.
    – John Grant
    Commented Aug 14 at 20:11
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There is a free app called Key Codes in the Mac App Store that as far as I can tell stays on top of all other windows. Other than menu items it stays atop all other apps including the Terminal and the Safari URL bar.

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    Brilliant tip Seamus if the op specifically needs that particular app to stay on top. Now, if, hypothetically speaking of course, he wants a different app to stay on top, or perhaps even few different ones, then perhaps not so sterling?
    – mysomic
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 22:01
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    Thanks! Works great for the use case "please occlude this ghastly thing".
    – ecmanaut
    Commented Mar 3, 2018 at 15:27
  • @mysomic i agree.
    – mjs
    Commented Aug 28, 2021 at 8:42
  • I am also working on an app that stays on top. But unfortunately its for my client's personal use who is an astronaut, and can I add that app as an answer to this question?
    – Muhammad bin Yusrat
    Commented Jun 7, 2022 at 8:00
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Not really an answer but more like a work-around: you can use Spectacle or a similar app to quickly setup a desktop layout that let you follow the original window.

Of course this won't help when you're waiting for someone else to join a support chat and in the meanwhile decide to use your time for something more useful than staring at a blank window -- like working on another virtual desktop :(

Grab Spectacle from here: https://www.spectacleapp.com

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  • Welcome to Ask Different and taking the time to post an answer. As a suggested improvement, your should provide links to the application(s) that you reference in your post. It makes for a better user experience. For more information on crafting a good answer see: apple.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer
    – Allan
    Commented May 3, 2016 at 15:46
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    Hello Allan, thank you very much for helping make AskDifferent a neat and tidy place, I will follow your instructions. Cheers.
    – i90rr
    Commented May 5, 2016 at 18:49
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BetterTouchTool (https://folivora.ai) now has an option to keep a window floating. The action is called "Pin/Unpin Focused Window to Float on Top" It works with most windows, but not with DRMed video content like Netflix. (It basically floats a live video stream of the backgrounded window on top)

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just drag your terminal, over the safari window, after typing the F3.

this automatically arranges the terminal, vertically, on the right side of the safari window, for example... so you can do some work and have access to the terminal, while in another window...

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  • Nothing happens when I try this. The terminal window just returns to original position.
    – Natsfan
    Commented Aug 9, 2018 at 20:12
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It's use case specific, but for images or text I always want on top I create a Sticky and have it float. It can't float over full-screen apps, but it's a quick stable fix.

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