Make the Alt-Tab stack monitor based

My workflow tends to be full screen windows, using two monitors.

On monitor one, i would have visual studio, and the web browser. Monitor 2 I would have cmd windows and browser debug tools.

After 2 years, I still get confused when im looking at monitor one, and I single press alt-tab and it doesn't switch to the previous window I was using on monitor 1, but instead switches to the previous window I was using on the system - which is the debug tools window on monitor 2

Is there a way to make alt-tab monitor independant?

Patrick

Posted 2016-10-14T03:15:13.893

Reputation: 103

Why not learn to use Win-number combination? Much less hassle and will switch to the specific application always. – Sami Kuhmonen – 2016-10-14T04:31:16.603

Awesome, could you elaborate? (how embarrasing, im a developer for 15 years lol) – Patrick – 2016-10-14T04:54:41.657

Using Windows-1 it opens the first application pinned to taskbar, Windows-2 the second etc. So you can have static key combinations for Visual Studio, browser and never have to alt-tab into them, only to any application that doesn't fit to that 9 – Sami Kuhmonen – 2016-10-14T04:57:02.353

Mate, that is fantastic – Patrick – 2016-10-14T05:37:04.620

Answers

For windows 7 you can use http://www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher.html, but apparently it isn't compatible with windows 8.

With VistaSwitcher, you can switch between applications only on your active monitor and filter out the applications shown on other monitors.

ddffnn

Posted 2016-10-14T03:15:13.893

Reputation: 61

This is the correct answer. Great tool. – Patrick – 2018-12-21T04:19:07.240

Not an answer to how to make alt-tab work that way, but an alternative workflow.

Pin the applications to taskbar in desired order and after that you can use the Windows key with numbers 1-9 to start and switch to those applications. 1 goes to the first pinned application, 2 to second etc. This way you have a quick way to switch to these nine applications regardless where they are in the alt-tab stack.

This also allows starting up the applications if they're not running so you can get used to Windows-4 (for example) always giving you Visual Studio no matter what.

This works from Windows 7 onwards.

Sami Kuhmonen

Posted 2016-10-14T03:15:13.893

Reputation: 2 052

Unfortunately, winkey-number is not a comfortable shortcut for my left hand – Patrick – 2018-12-21T04:19:59.167