A year ago, I did the switch from Linux to Mac OS at work. While the initial couple of weeks were painful, I’ve gradually grown to love the Mac environment. It’s a good balance of a Unix-like development environment with ease of use and commercial supported software.
But no matter how praised Apple’s design is, they have failed in some areas. The Mac OS app switcher is one of them. A lot can be said on how an app switcher should work, but there are a couple of clear cock-ups in the Mac OS flavor.
Unlocalizable keybindings
A Beginner’s Guide To the Mac App Switcher You can use the App Switcher to quickly and easily switch between running apps. It is a keyboard shortcut, but not as simple to use as just pressing the keys. You can use it to see which apps are running and pick which one to bring to the front, all without lifting your fingers off of the keyboard. Free download Application Switcher Application Switcher for Mac OS X. Application Switcher is a REALbasic plug-in that can disable/enable application switching via COMMAND-TAB (ALT-TAB) on windoze. Featured Jun 29, 2018. How to protect your Mac from malware. Featured Jun 01, 2018. How to share files. Download Tabber - Window Switcher for macOS 10.11 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Switch windows and apps with a Hotkey and improve your experience and workflow. Activate wanted windows and apps with Tabber Window Switcher which is a Command+Tab alternative to switch windows. Turbo Boost Switcher is a little application for Mac computers that allows to enable and/or disable the Turbo Boost feature. It installs a precompiled kernel extension (32 or 64 bits depending on your system) that updates the Turbo Boost MSR register, so It will ask for your admin password when using it.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click Users & Groups, then click Login Options. Open the Login Options pane for me. Click the lock icon to unlock it. Enter an administrator name and password. Select “Show fast user switching menu as,” then choose how the fast user switching menu looks in the menu bar.
Mac OS has chosen to emphasize apps over windows, thus the main keybinding is for switching between different apps (Cmd+Tab). A separate keybinding is provided for switching between windows of a single app (Cmd+backtick).
The choice of Cmd+backtick (`) is because backtick is the key above tab, making it a natural choice for related functionality. The glaring problem is that this is hugely US-centric. Any non-US keyboard – including the US-international keyboard – has backtick in a different location.
Compare the key combinations on a couple of standard keyboard layouts:
To make the keybinding work in any reasonable way, the user must know how to manually rebind the keybinding to Cmd+section sign (§) or whatever character happens to be above tab. (For those without the know-how, it’s from System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Keyboard → Move focus to next window.)
Similar functionality, different way of working
The second glaring usability issue is the way the two functionalities work. Switching between apps and windows is completely analogous functionality, so they should work the same, right? Alas, they don’t.
The most common use-case by far is switching back and forth between two apps or windows. Switching between two apps is simple: you just press (and release) Cmd+Tab repeatedly. Do the same with Cmd+backtick, and it won’t switch between the two windows, but cycle through all the windows of the app. To move back and forth between two windows (assuming you have more than two) you have to alternate between Cmd+backtick and Cmd+Shift+backtick.
There is simply no excuse for this kind of inconsistency. I even posted a question on UX StackExchange, and have yet to receive a single explanation for this logic.
Other gripes
I have some other gripes about the switcher as well, though I admit these ones can be argued against.
The philosophy of switching between apps, not windows, seems to be a remnant from the 90s, when each task had its own app. Especially with the prevalence of web apps, the browser is increasingly the app within which different tasks are performed. Why should I have to use cognitive effort to know which keybinding I have to hit? I want to switch between tasks (i.e. windows), not apps.
Another is that when switching apps, it brings all the app windows to front at once. I often have multiple terminal windows open and I want one of them on top, not all of them. This I admit is highly dependent on usage patterns.
Thirdly, the app switcher shows all apps open on all desktops. Cognitively, I split up different types of work on different desktops, and want to switch only between those in the current context. In any case, if I select, say, the mail client which is not on the current desktop, instead of actually taking me to the correct desktop and showing the app, it just leaves me staring at an unchanged (apart from the menu bar) screen.
Switcher Punto For Mac Os High Sierra
Fixing Apples
Fortunately, there are a few pieces of software that provide a custom window switcher, and they can even be bound to the standard Cmd+Tab keybinding.
(Updated) I previously recommended Witch, until I discovered HyperSwitch. HyperSwitch is blazingly fast, allows switching between the two recent windows without even bringing the switcher into view (set “Delay activation for” to ~200 ms), shows preview images, and just works incredibly well out-of-the-box. (As of Feb 2019 it’s available free in Beta.)
If your friend has a Mac, then you’ve most likely heard bragging about how switching windows with Exposé is the best thing since sliced Safari. Switcher is a really cool free Windows app that takes that feature and implements it beautifully in Windows. (Windows Vista and higher only, though, since it requires Aero.)
Why Exposé?
Exposé is one of the few features that I have consciously wanted on Windows. Everything else, like hot corners and spaces, is second to the cool window switching of OS X. Just hit a button and you can instantly see all your windows:
Image credit: Wikipedia
Switcher Punto For Mac Os 10.13
Exposé lets you quickly switch between all your windows; think of instantly seeing both your client’s email and your Photoshop working space. You have instant access to all your open documents, windows, and files. Alt + Tab simply pales in comparison.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/9/8/119823833/372566587.png)
Switcher: the easiest, and best, Exposé replacement for Windows
After installing and starting Switcher, make sure you have more than one window open and press Win + ~ on your keyboard to be greeted with a beautiful, dare I say, rip-off of Apple’s design:
By default Switcher is set to be activated by hit Win+~. (The ~ [tilde] key is located directly below the Escape key on most US keyboards; you may have to hunt for it on international keyboards.) However, you can change this hotkey to any key combination you want and even setup a mouse shortcut to call Switcher.
Once you are in Switcher, pressing Win + ~ again will cycle through the available windows; you may also use the arrow keys to cycle. Once you have selected the window you want, pressing Enter on your keyboard will open that window. You can also use your mouse to select/open windows. Pressing Escape on your keyboard gets you out of Switcher and back to the window you had open.
By default the view is set to Tiled mode, the mode most similar to OS X. However, if you want to change your mode, pressing F2 will get you Docked mode while F3 will get you Grid mode; pressing F1 gets you back to Tiled mode. You can also use Page Up and Page Down keys to cycle through these modes. Here’s what they each look like:
Docked:
Grid:
Tiled:
All three modes look amazing, all three have brilliantly smooth transitions, and each mode shows the same information. However, Tiled mode shows windows sized proportionately to their actual size, Docked mode displays one window at a time in as-full-as-possible size, while Grid mode shows all windows at approximately the same size.
The cool thing is, by default Switcher is set to remember the last mode you used. So if you prefer one mode over another, simply use that mode the first time you use Switcher and the next time you use Switcher, it will open in that particular mode. You also have the ability, through the program settings, to pick which mode is the “default”.
Search: the other way to find your windows
If you’ve used Firefox 4 (it is still in beta), you know how easy it is to switch between tabs by searching them: Ctrl+D, type, enter. The same thing is possible in Switcher. As soon as you are in Switcher, simply start typing, and Switcher will filter your windows based on the query you have typed. (Switcher compares your search query with windows’ title bar content.) In the following example I queried “search” and Switcher showed me all four search windows that I had open:
Searching for windows is icing on top of the cake called Switcher.
But what about customization?
Switcher is fully customizable, too. From the first page, you can change the default view, the dock location, and other things like autostart:
In the other panes are various appearance related options; there are too many options to list. Have a look through and see what you like:
![For For](/uploads/1/1/9/8/119823833/678077060.jpg)
As you can see – from changing the hotkeys/shortcuts that activate Switcher, to controlling what is the default mode, to changing how Switcher animates, and everything in between – there are numerous settings of every kind to customize here. Switcher is a customizer’s dream, even including a powerful Advanced pane that lets you customize virtually everything.
Will it slow down my computer?
Switcher will not – should not – slow down your computer. It uses only 7-8 MB of RAM and little to no CPU while it is idle sitting in your system tray. It, of course, uses CPU when you are using the program to switch between windows but even when using Switcher I noticed CPU usage is very minimal, typically less than 5%.
Plus, Switcher is a very small download (less than 400 KB) and has a portable version.
Conclusion
If your aim is to wow, then Switcher is your program. It meets the level of visual polish of the OS X app; and tops the OS X app in customization. Switcher is a powerful, awesome copy of Exposé. You can download it from the following links:
Version reviewed: v2.0.0.2705
Supported OS: Windows Vista and higher – requires Aero
Download size: 397 KB for the installer version and 175 KB for the portable version
[Direct download – installer]
[Direct download – portable version]