My computer desk is littered with handwritten paper notes: reminders, scribbled phone numbers, notes on articles I’m writing. There’s really no need for these paper scraps to be littering my desk as Windows has a perfectly good equivalent. So how do you get Post-It Notes for Windows?

Post-It Notes for Windows

The first thing to say is that the app we’re covering here aren’t actually Post-It Notes – that’s a registered brand. But if you’re thinking of the computerised equivalent of those little yellow notes that you stick to your monitor, then roll right up.

The software we’re using is called Microsoft Sticky Notes. If you search for ‘Sticky Notes’ on your PC it might already be installed; if not click here to download Sticky Notes for free (Windows 10 only).

Once installed, this tiny utility will let you write notes and pin them to your computer desktop. You can type notes or, if you have a touchscreen laptop with stylus, jot handwritten notes just like actual Post-It Notes.

A recent update to Sticky Notes has introduced two very useful features. First, the app now supports multi-screen monitors, so if you have a secondary screen you can drag all the notes on to that and fill that (often) wasted space.

Secondly, the app now allows you to insert pictures into notes, which is handy if you need a visual aide memoire or want to take a screenshot of something that you plan to order later, for example.

The irritating thing about the Sticky Notes app is that it needs to be open and running for the notes to appear on the desktop. You can make Sticky Notes run automatically on start up (look out for a future article on this), but the easiest way is to leave it running when you switch off your PC. When you restart, Sticky Notes will restart with it.

How do I sync Sticky Notes to a smartphone?

Another killer feature of Sticky Notes is the ability to sync to your Android smartphone, making the electronic version truly much more useful than its paper equivalent.

This is done via Microsoft’s OneNote app, but you need to switch the feature on first.

First, install the OneNote app from the Play Store if you haven’t done so already. Then go back to the app’s listing in the Play Store, scroll down, and you’ll notice an option to join the beta program.

Once you’ve joined that, you should see an option to Upgrade the app at the top of the screen.

Once the app has done its business, you should see a tab for Sticky Notes at the bottom of the OneNote app, giving you access to all your notes wherever you may be.