Window Switcher

Window-Switcher offers customizable hotkeys for quickly switching windows on Windows OS:

1. Alt+Backtick: switch between windows belonging to the foreground app using a responsive visual grid.

   Hold Alt and press Backtick repeatedly to navigate through the visual preview grid. Release Alt to activate the selected window, hold Shift (Alt+Shift+ `) to navigate backward, or press Escape to cancel switching.

   The visual grid displays cached, aspect-correct window previews along with app icons and readable titles. When switching between more than ten windows, selection seamlessly pages in 10-window layouts.

2. Alt+Tab: switch between apps. (disabled by default)

💡 Hold down the Alt key and tap the `(Backtick)/Tab key to cycle through windows/apps, Press Alt + `(Backtick)/Tab and release both keys to switch to the last active window/app.

Installation

1. Download: Visit the Github Release and download the windows-switcher.zip file.
2. Extract: Unzip the downloaded file and extract the window-switcher.exe to your preferred location.
3. Launch: window-switcher.exe is a standalone executable, no installation is required, just double-click the file to run it.

For the tech-savvy, here's a one-liner to automate the installation:

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sigoden/window-switcher/main/install.ps1 | iex

You can also install Window-Switcher via Scoop with these commands:

scoop bucket add extras
scoop install extras/window-switcher

Configuration

Window-Switcher offers various customization options to tailor its behavior to your preferences. You can define custom keyboard shortcuts, enable or disable specific features, and fine-tune settings through a configuration file.

To personalize Window-Switcher, you'll need a configuration file named window-switcher.ini. This file should be placed in the same directory as the window-switcher.exe file. Once you've made changes to the configuration, make sure to restart Window-Switcher so your new settings can take effect.

Here is the default configuration:

# Whether to show the notification-area icon.
trayicon = yes

[switch-windows]
# Switch between windows belonging to the foreground app.
hotkey = alt+`
blacklist =
ignore_minimal = no
thumbnail_preview = yes
enable_quick_actions = yes
only_current_desktop = auto

[switch-apps]
# Optional app-level switcher.
enable = no
hotkey = alt+tab
ignore_minimal = no
override_icons =
only_current_desktop = auto

[log]
level = info
path =

Running as Administrator (Optional)

Window-Switcher works in standard user mode by default. Launch Window-Switcher in administrator mode to also manage applications running in administrator mode.

Important: If you enable the startup option while running in standard user mode, Window-Switcher will launch in standard mode upon system reboot. To ensure startup with admin privileges, launch Window-Switcher as administrator first before enabling startup.

License

Copyright (c) 2023-2026 window-switcher developers.

window-switcher is made available under the terms of the MIT License, at your option.

See the LICENSE files for license details.