Switch Between Applications in Style!

By now, everyone should be familiar with the Windows taskbar. Here you get to see your opened applications and folders. Switching to any one of them is just a matter of clicking on the one you want to work on. That much we all know. The problem for most people who work with a lot of applications at any given time is to be able to easily find the right window/application and quickly switch to it. Here, I’ll go over a spectacular free utility that aims to help solve that problem!

On Mac laptops, users are treated with a special feature called Expose. With this feature the user, with a push of a keyboard button, can easily view all of their opened folders and programs on their screen. The user can then easily select and focus on the application they want to work with by switching to it. It sounds really boring and simple but until you try it, you’ll be wondering why this feature didn’t come as a default setting in the Windows operating system as well. The good news however is that a good Microsoft fellow have decided to give us Window users the same feature as Expose but calls it Switcher instead.

Traditional Methods

Before getting more in depth with Switcher, it is necessary to understand how Microsoft allows us to natviely switch between applications and folders. In Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 operating system, we have two ways to view our opened windows (obviously I’m not counting the taskbar itself). First there is the traditional Alt+Tab method or as they call it in Windows Vista, Windows Flip. By pressing these two button combination, we have a quick way of scrolling through our opened windows. By continuous tapping Tab while holding Alt, we can scroll through the icons of windows we have opened. We could also use our mouse to quickly hover over the window we want to work with and it will be in the forefront. The slight problem with this method is that the icons are pretty small to see exactly what the windows consist of. However this is not a bad method and in fact one that works well for a lot of users. With Vista and Windows 7, there’s a new preview feature so going over each window in Alt+Tab will visually show you the actual window content but you are still forced to manually scroll through each one.

Beginning with Windows Vista, a new feature called Windows Flip 3D was introduced. By pressing the Windows button + Tab, Windows will render a live 3D screen of all your windows where you can flip through each one (again, by tapping Tab). This does help a lot but once again, you must flip through each window in order to find the right one you want. Although it looks really cool, I find it not as effective as the Alt+Tab method.

 

Switcher

The free utility Switcher brings a new method of switching between all your windows. As mentioned earlier, Mac users have been enjoying this nice little feature for some time now as it’s built-in by default. Now, you can have this feature as well in the Windows operating system (sadly, only for Vista and Windows 7). Switcher allows you to instantly view all of your opened windows in one screen. Rather than having to flip or scroll your way to the correct window, you can now just view all your windows at once in one screen and make the switch. At the core, that’s how Switcher works but the neat part is that it has so much capability and configuration options that makes it much more pleasant to use.

1. You can download Switcher from here. Switcher requires no installation so just download and run it! If you don’t like it, simply just throw away the executable and you have nothing to worry about!

2. Once you run the utility, simply right click on the icon in your system tray and select the Settings option to configure Switcher to your liking. Here I’ll go over each screen to see what can be configured. First is the General tab. Here you get to select the view Switcher displays your windows when activated. You have three views to choose from. Pick the view of your liking. Don’t worry though as you can quickly switch views any time later by visiting back this option or by switching the view in Switcher itself when activated by pressing F1, F2, or F3. Below that are two options when using Dock view. In the Other section, Switcher is nice enough to give you the option of automatically starting itself when you login to Windows. This way you don’t have to worry about manually starting up the utility each and everytime!

3. Next up is the Appearance option. Under Desktop, you have the choice to whether have your desktop show in the background while in Switcher mode or just display a black screen. Also you can have Switcher display your desktop as a window or not in Switcher mode. In the Brightness slider, you can configure how bright or dark the desktop should be in the background. Under that is the Window option. Switcher can assign numbers to your windows for quick switching. You can turn this off if you don’t like it. The selection zoom slider tells Switcher how much it should zoom in to a window when you hover over a window with your mouse. This gives you a better view of your window. Next up is the Animation option. Under Transition, you can configure if you want your windows to be animated or not when activating Switcher. Animation does take some processing power so if you don’t need it or find that your computer slows down a bit, set Transition Duration to 0 seconds.

4. In Windows Style, you are allowed to customize the look of Switcher. For example, you can configure border colors as well as background color of the windows. I’ll leave this up to you for experimentation!

5. In the Filter option, we get to specify how the search function works. That’s right, Switcher has a search function! If you have 30 windows opened at one time (trust me, I’ve seen more before) viewing all windows can be a little difficult for even Switcher. Therefore, you can search for the window title and Switcher will find it for you. Here you can specify the position of the search box as well as if the search box should be displayed automatically or only when you begin typing.

6. Next up is Shortcuts and is probably the most important option you will configure. Here you will actually configure how you will activate Switcher, similar to how you activate Windows Flip (Alt+Tab or Windows+Tab) along with a host of other options. The default button combination to activate Switcher is by pressing the left Windows button along with the ~ key (usually under the Esc key or before the number 1 key) but this can be changed to your liking. Under Switcher Shortcuts section, you get to see all the options and button combination to go along with each one! This is usually for advance users but you can play around if you want. The main part is to configure how to start Switcher. I’ve decided to replace Windows Flip 3D with Switcher so I’ll configure it to start up whenever I press Windows+Tab. You also can use your mouse to activate Switcher by moving your mouse over to a section of your screen that you specify! Once again, I’ll leave the rest for you to play around with. If you mess up, simply hit the Reset button to start all over again.

7. The Advanced option is labeled accordingly. There’s really no need for us to poke our heads in here where they don’t belong so it’s safe to say that we can leave this option setting alone!

8. Once everything is set, it’s time to activate Switcher! Simply press the button combination you have specified and you’ll instantly see Switcher at work. In order for Switcher to activate, you must have at least two windows open. The rest is pretty self explanatory. To switch to a window, simply click on it. To begin searching, simply start typing. As you can see, Switcher gives you a much better view of your windows than Windows Flip and it works much more effortlessly.

There you have it. Not only is the Switcher utility free, it also works wonderfully and beautifully. While I will admit that not everyone will find this utility useful, for those who open a ton of windows at a single time, they will fall in love with this. If you really do fall into that category, drop a courtesy thank you email to the developer of Switcher by visiting the contact section of Switcher’s website.