Productivity Tip #11: TaskSwitch XP - A better way to Alt-Tab
One of my friends from work suggested that I give TaskSwitch XP a try. What’s so great about it, you may ask? Envision this scenario:
You have 30 programs open. You hit Alt-Tab, and you’re selecting program #2, and you want to select program #15. Instead of holding down Alt and hitting Tab 13 times, TaskSwitchXP lets you simply mouse over the icon you want. Release Alt, and it opens the app you want. Being able to simply mouse over everything to open it is beautiful, instead of alt-tabbing around blindly. It becomes second nature VERY quickly.
It’s a *complete* replacement for Windows’ Alt-Tab. It’s very easy to turn off and uninstall if you don’t want to use it anymore, however. :)
It’s decently customizable and it also provides full-sized window previews of all your windows, which you can selectively turn off if you choose. I wish I could disable it entirely, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.
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July 10th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Sweet, works a charm!
July 11th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Cool, glad you like! :)
July 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
You missed an important thing about TaskSwitchXP, one of the two reasons I ever bothered downloading it in the first place: if you have more than one monitor, and you hit Alt-Tab, XP’s app switcher always shows up on the primary monitor. TaskSwitchXP shows up on the same monitor as whatever window currently has focus.
July 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Oh, good call. I actually don’t use that feature, but I can see that being tremendously useful to a lot of people. :)
Since I work with one CRT and one LCD, I always have the CRT do lesser, secondary tasks, so the most important thing is always happening on my LCD. I just have TaskSwitch work its magic from there.