Keeping a window on top

February 8, 2022 8:42 AM

I'd like to keep a particular window on top of my desktop. I'm running macOS Monterey. I'd prefer a universal solution but if there's one specific to Chrome, that's the app in which I'm trying to keep a window on top. (I don't want it to keep every window on top, only one I designate).
posted by BuddhaInABucket to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Does "on top" mean "in front of everything else" or "at the top of the screen?" Maximizing the window in question places in on a virtual desktop where it is always in focus, and you can toggle between that and the normal workspace with Control and the arrow keys. Since you mention Chrome, you can pin chrome tabs and/or only have one tab in that maximized window, with another window for other Chrome stuff.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:29 AM on February 8, 2022

Response by poster: I do video chat through a web-based platform, and I make the window a tidy size and put it in the top-left corner of my desktop. But as I'm working in other windows, that chat often ends up in the background, and I'd like to keep the other person's face in view.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 10:37 AM on February 8, 2022

This may depend on your OS. Looks like there are a variety of ways to do this in Windows - involving plug-ins and extensions. ...edited to add that I just saw you're on Mac OS.
posted by hydra77 at 11:05 AM on February 8, 2022

Best answer: Helium looks like it was designed for exactly your use case.

Why this kind of functionality isn't already baked into every window manager on every desktop platform is completely beyond me.
posted by flabdablet at 9:23 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Helium is EXACTLY the kind of thing I was looking for.
Therefore, of course, the site I'm using loaded a pop-up designating it as an unsupported browser and asking me to use Chrome.
So, uh, while technically this question is 'answered', I am open to further suggestions.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 3:17 PM on February 9, 2022

Does your video chat site still work in it and just gratuitously annoy you with that pop-up, or does it actually fail?
posted by flabdablet at 6:41 PM on February 9, 2022

Best answer: You could give Google's Picture-in-picture extension for Chrome or this Picture-in-picture app a whirl (both found via StackExchange).

I would be completely astonished that this is so hard, were it not for decades of finding myself needing to tamp down an all-consuming frustrated rage every time my fingers end up anywhere near anything made by Apple. I honestly don't understand how their stuff works so well for so many. All it's ever done for me since they abandoned the wonderful, open Apple II philosophy is get in my way.
posted by flabdablet at 6:52 PM on February 9, 2022

Response by poster: The picture-in-picture extension works! In *exactly* the way I wanted it to. Yay! Thanks so much, flabdablet, this improves my work UX a lot.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:13 AM on February 10, 2022