A utility window is a window in Mac OS X which floats on top of all other windows and offers tools or information for the current application. Utility windows are only visible while their parent application is in the focus. Some windows are system wide and thus shared between all applications. This includes the font window and the color window. Other windows are unique to each individual application. Inspectors are one example of a common application-specific utility widow. iWork applications use inspectors to prevent toolbar clutter and still offer a way to access all of the tools needed to create and edit a document.

Utility windows have a specially unrounded titlebar to differentiate them from other types of windows.

Graphical user interface