AltBacktick

A lightweight utility providing macOS-style window switching within the same application for Windows.

Core Features

• Same-App Window Cycling: Quickly cycle through multiple windows of the currently active application using shortcuts.
• Process Switching (Alt+Tab Override): Press Alt+Tab to switch between running applications with a visual overlay. Tab cycles forward, Shift+Tab cycles backward, Esc cancels. Release Alt to confirm.
• Background Execution: Runs silently in the background without a console window, managed via a system tray icon.
• Minimalist Design: Compiled in C++ using Win32 API for high performance and low resource consumption.

Requirements

• Administrator privileges required. The app uses a low-level keyboard hook (WH_KEYBOARD_LL) which cannot intercept input to elevated processes at a lower integrity level.
• Windows 10 or later.

Usage (Shortcuts)

• Alt + ` : Switch to the next window of the current application.
• Alt + Shift + ` : Switch to the previous window of the current application.
• Alt + Tab: Switch between running applications with a visual overlay.
• Esc: Cancel the Alt+Tab switcher.

Execution and Termination

• Run: Execute the bin/alt-backtick.exe file as administrator.
• Exit: Right-click the system tray icon in the taskbar and select Exit AltBacktick.
• Auto-start: Right-click the tray icon → Run on Startup to register via Task Scheduler. The app will launch with admin privileges at every logon without a UAC prompt.

Build (For Developers)

Requires MinGW GCC 15+ and GNU Make (or Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools).

make release   # GUI build, no console
make debug     # Debug build with console logging
make clean     # Remove build artifacts