OneNote has a genuinely good feature called Dock to Desktop — it reserves real screen space so your notes are never covered, even when you maximize another window. The catch: it only works for OneNote. Always On Dock brings that same reserved-space docking to every other program you use.
Click Dock to Desktop on OneNote's View tab (or press Ctrl+Alt+D), and OneNote doesn't just float in the corner — it tells Windows to genuinely shrink the usable desktop area, the same mechanism the taskbar uses. Every other window on the screen adjusts around it. Maximize your browser, and it fills only the space that's left. Your notes stay visible, because Windows itself knows that strip of the screen is unavailable.
The feature is genuinely a bit hidden — it's usually accessed via the View tab or Quick Access Toolbar rather than the main ribbon, and it has some known rough edges: on multi-monitor setups it can behave oddly with extended displays, and the reserved space sometimes persists across virtual desktops in ways people don't expect. None of that means it's gone — it's still there in current versions of OneNote — it's just easy to miss and imperfect.
The feature can't be turned on for anything else. Want your chat app, a browser tab, a PDF, or a terminal to behave the same way — reserved space, never covered? OneNote has no answer for that, because Dock to Desktop is built into OneNote's own code, not something Windows offers generally.
Arranges windows side by side at the moment you set them up. The instant you maximize one of them again, the layout is gone and whatever you needed stays buried.
Floats a window above everything else instead of reserving space. It solves the problem backwards — now that window covers your work, rather than the other way around.
It registers as a Windows AppBar — the exact mechanism behind the taskbar and OneNote's own Dock to Desktop — so it reserves space the same legitimate way. The difference is it isn't limited to one app.
| Capability | OneNote's Dock to Desktop | Always On Dock |
|---|---|---|
| Reserves real desktop space | Yes | Yes |
| Works with any program | No — OneNote only | Yes |
| Multiple docked windows at once | No | Up to 3, per monitor |
| Independent per-monitor docks | Inconsistent on extended displays | Yes, each remembers its own width |
| Keyboard shortcuts to jump back | No | Yes |
Yes — it's present in current desktop OneNote, on the View tab or Quick Access Toolbar (Ctrl+Alt+D). It's easy to miss since it isn't on the default ribbon, and it has known issues on extended-monitor and multi-virtual-desktop setups.
No — it's built into OneNote only. Always On Dock provides the same reserved-space docking for any Windows window.
You don't have to choose. Keep using OneNote's own docking for OneNote if you like it, and use Always On Dock for everything else — or dock OneNote through Always On Dock too, alongside other windows in the same strip.
$0.99, one-time, no subscription. 1-day free trial through the Microsoft Store.
Always On Dock is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft or OneNote.