Never use Alt-Tab again with this free productivity tool
By: Johannes Thor
Tags: Tips, Productivity, Keyboard, Computers, Life Hacking

Being a modern-day knowledge worker means having a lot of applications open at any given time. My usual culprits include Chrome, Outlook, Excel, MindManager, Notion, Explorer, Teams, along with a host of other applications that see intermittent use.

Switching between these can be done in a few ways, some involve using a mouse while others involve the keyboard.

Each switch only takes a few seconds at most, but I found out many years ago that it can easily take me out of a flow state if I have to click around too much. So I’ve always been playing around with ways to make this app switching more transparent in my workflow.

Before I show you how my current setup is, let’s review the different ways Windows 10 allows us to switch between different applications.

Using a mouse

Click on the application in the taskbar

This is probably the most common way most people use to switch between applications. Perfectly acceptable, if a little slow. Simply find the icon for the app you want, and hit it with the mouse pointer. Here I’m switching to Chrome.

If the application you need is visible, click anywhere inside its window

If you are rapidly switching between a few applications, you might have all of them visible. In which case it might be best to simply switch to it by clicking somewhere within the boundaries of the window.

You see the window you want? Just click it!

You see the window you want? Just click it!

Task view button

Click the “Task View” button in the Taskbar.

This brings up a view of all open windows. It also shows a list of documents you’ve opened over the last 30 days. I’ve never used that feature, it’s always seemed like a gimmick. But maybe it floats your boat. You can also add virtual desktops on this view, but I don’t make use of that feature either. I find that things get lost that way.

Using a keyboard

Here is where we get to the good stuff. I like keeping my hands on my keyboard as much as possible. Going from the keyboard to the mouse and back again disrupts my flow state. I also get an ache in my wrist whenever I have to use a mouse for an extended period of time.

Here are the different ways Windows 10 has built-in that allow us to switch between open applications.

Alt + Tab

Pressing the Alt+Tab keyboard combination, and continuing to hold the Alt key while repeatedly pressing Tab cycles between open windows. Power tip here, holding Alt while pressing Shift-Tab cycles in the opposite direction.

This is the best Windows 10 has to offer. It’s been around since Windows 2.0!

Windows 2.0 — Used with permission from Microsoft.

Windows 2.0 — Used with permission from Microsoft.

Windows key + Tab

Pressing Windows+Tab, which brings up a hybrid between Alt-Tab and MacOS’s Exposé feature. It’s the same view as you get by clicking the Task View button on the taskbar and I showed in a screenshot earlier. To use the keyboard to select a different window, you have to use the arrow keys. Hitting Win+Tab again just closes the view. This view feels like it’s designed to be used along with a mouse. So I don’t use it that much.

Windows key + top number row

Pressing Windows and holding it down and selecting any number from the top keyboard row, from 1 through 0. This corresponds to the pinned and open icons in the taskbar. Using my taskbar as an example, if I hit Win+2 I switch to Explorer, while Win+3 would switch to Chrome.

A hot tip when using this feature, if more than one window is open for a particular application, holding down Win and repeatedly pressing the same number key cycles through the open windows. It doesn’t cycle between open browser tabs, though. Furthermore, if only one window is open, it alternates between minimizing the window and restoring it.

What I do to shave h̵o̵u̵r̵s̵ seconds off my day

Many years ago I came across something called AutoHotKey. It’s a small application you can download and use to run scripts on Windows. What it enables you to do is automate just about everything in Windows. Some people have taken it to extremes, which I really think is not the best use of it as a tool. Better and more robust tools exist if you want to build something complicated.

AutoHotKey is a programming language, or a scripting language to be more precise. The possibilities are virtually endless.

But what I want to show you today is how I use it to map a hot-key combination to perform certain actions. I use it here to activate a particular app. For example, I use Win+C to activate Chrome, and Win+N to activate Notion. In the script below you see the code, I use to do this.

SetTitleMatchMode, 2 ; Set matching of windows title search to find match anywhere inside the windows title #c:: ; Windows+C to activate or Run Chrome

IfWinExist, Google Chrome

IfWinActive

WinMinimize

else

Winactivate

else

run,"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe"

return #n:: ; Windows+N to activate Notion

IfWinExist, ahk_exe Notion.exe

IfWinActive

WinMinimize

else

Winactivate

return

For most people, that looks like gibberish. So some explanation is required to get a hang of the syntax. Ignore the first line, for now, it’s just to tell Autohotkey how to look for each window. If you want to read more about that particular function, the documentation is here. Let’s look at the first part:

#c::

This indicates to Autohotkey to listen for the Windows and C (the letter c on your keyboard) being pressed together. The hashtag is the sign AutoHotKey uses to indicate the Windows key. You can first press the Win key and then C or press both at the same time. The two colons then indicate that an action is to be performed when that key combination is pressed.

The next line is

IfWinExist, Google Chrome

This tells AutoHotKey to check if there is a window that contains the text “Google Chrome” somewhere in its title. It would report a match if the window is named “AutoHotkey — Google Search — Google Chrome”. This is because we used SetTitleMatchMode to 2, which matches a window title even if it’s only a partial match.

If that window is already active, the script then minimizes it

WinMinimize

If it exists but isn’t active, it goes on to tell it to activate. This brings the window to the front. Like magic, I say.

else

Winactivate

The final piece is to indicate to AutoHotKey that this particular sequence of events is over. We do that by using the return command.

return

Switching between apps

I use this method to switch between apps whenever I can. I still have to resort to clicking particular windows with my mouse or even Alt-Tab sometimes. But this is how I prefer to move around. It’s become instinct, second nature almost. I miss it whenever I use my Mac or borrow someone’s computer.

These are the apps and hotkeys I’ve mapped to switch between apps:

Chrome → Win+C

Outlook → Win+O

Teams → Win+T

PowerPoint → Win+P

Word → Win+W

Excel → Win+X

Notion → Win+N

I’d love to have a count for each time I’ve used these hotkeys. It’s in the hundreds each day. It allows me to switch without taking my hands off the keyboard. If you like the idea of doing that, you’re going to need to learn other keyboard shortcuts as well, but that’s a post for another day.

Using the script

To run an AutoHotKey script, you need to download the software from Autohotkey.com. When you’ve done that, save your .ahk script somewhere and double click it. It should automatically be run using AutoHotKey.

Go create your own scripts

AutoHotKey is a great way to learn about automation. I’ll share some of my other scripts soon, but in the meantime, check out these guides on the AutoHotKey site.

https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm