OnTopReplica is the solution. The lightweight program can be used to create always on top snippets of open programs and windows in the Windows operating system.

It can for instance be used to track a lengthy software installation process by selecting the progress bar of the installation window, download progress, news feeds or other real time information, media contents like videos or parts of messaging programs.

ontopreplica

A transparent window is opened on startup. A right-click on the window displays a context menu with options to create a new always on top snippet.

Here is one example to see how it works. A search on Google for Football world cup live score displays live scores of world cup matches at the top of the search results.

A right-click on the OnTopReplica window afterwards opens the context menu. Select a window is used to specify an open window of which contents should be displays always on top of other windows and applications.

Selecting the Google Chrome window will display the entire window in the OnTopReplica window. It is now possible to use the select region option to draw a rectangle around a region containing the live scores.

The window will afterwards only display the live scores and nothing else. The application window stays on top all the time. It can be moved around on the desktop or resized to fit the individual needs of the computer user.

always on top

The program has options to automatically resize the application window and to position it in one of the corners of the computer screen.

Two restrictions are in place. The information in the always on top window can only be displayed if the source window continues to display it. This does mean for instance that it is not possible to use the same browser window to surf the Internet while information from it are displayed in the OnTopReplica window.

The other restriction are other always on top windows. Moving one of those windows will block the view of the OnTopReplica window.

Another interesting feature that has not been mentioned yet is Click forwarding which allows the user to interact with the source application by clicking on the OnTopReplica window.

The software program is available for download at the developer’s website as a setup and source. (Via Shell City)

It is however almost certain that software developers have created an application with the exact functionality needed. In this case Power Menu was developed which is a lightweight software program that adds the option to minimize a window, to make a windows always on top and to set the transparency level of each window individually.

Power Menu adds the three options to the right-click menu when clicking window titles. This is working when the window is visible on the screen but also when it is minimized in the task bar.

Power Menu can be run on all 32-bit editions of Windows from Windows 9x to Windows Vista.