Hello everyone,

VistaSwitcher replaces the default Windows Alt-Tab dialog with a nice box that shows a list of all running tasks with their names and preview snapshots and enables the user to take actions on them using the mouse and keyboard shortcuts (Learn more)

>> VistaSwitcher screenshot <<

Please take a look at the following articles about VistaSwitcher and its vast capabilities.

Updated articles:

- VistaSwitcher - The Brand New Alt-Tab Task Switcher
- Switch Between Windows Of The Same Application
- Manage Windows With VistaSwitcher
- Alt-Tab For Multiple Monitors

General product pages:

- VistaSwitcher Homepage + Screenshots
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How To Contribute










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Very nice indeed Alex.
Still some features missing from the old TaskSwitch XP, but a very nice improvement.
Love Vista/7 support, plus the performance of x64!

Nice design! Startet using it immediately under Vista, as I fell the overview is simply better than with the original MS tool.

But I immediately missed my second monitor in the preview - that seems to have not changed. I hope it will until the final version.

And let's get rid of the systray icon, please.

Looking really nice! Running on Win 7 ok so far. I would love to see an option as I originally suggested that when pressing say 1 to select the first task, it will auto-switch to that task rather than then also having to press enter.

Also, even though I have task numbering selected, I don't see any task numbers...?

Another suggestion, when selecting the different tasks, it would be nice to have an aero peek preveiw in much the same way that win7 currently does it with alt-tab.

Awesome Alex!!

Thank you very much for trying out the Beta. I'm very glad that you like it.

Here is the list of options/features that do NOT work in version 1.0.1:

- Check for new versions of VistaSwitcher online (General tab)
- Show task numbers (Appearance tab)
- Theme, colors, fonts, etc (Appearance tab) - only default theme is available
- Show VistaSwitcher on *Monitor #* (Behavior tab)
- Show tasks from the active monitor only (Behavior tab)
- Language files (beta is English only)

Beta 2 should be released within a few days. It'll address some of the concerns you raised.

Then I would need 2-4 weeks to add support of multiple monitors and color/font customization.

This should be added in a future release. I'm working on it..


Open "Taskbar and Start Menu Poperties", Notification Area, click Customize, VistaSwitcher - "always hide" (must also work on XP).

Added to "beta 2": pressing the number key twice will switch to the task


This also will be added to "beta 2".


I don't know if this is possible to activate Aero Peek from a third-party application. I'll check this..

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I'm on Vista, and it seems I can not use that option without checking 'Hide inactive symbols'. I absolutely hate that one, and if used it would force me to set a long list of items to active manually, just for Vistaswitch to be hidden. So if I did not get this wrong it should better be an option in the program itself.

Thanks for the outlook on Beta 2, looking forward to it!

Looks great! I'm glad to see you're working on a taskswitcher again.

Here are a couple issues & feature requests (I'm using Windows 7):
- I'd like to switch between window instances using winkey+tab. When I try to set this combo, I get: "Could not register hotkey"

- Can we have an option to change the size of the preview? I've set the "Number of items" to be large and this causes the preview's height to grow, and its width proportionatly. This results in the vistaswitcher window being wider than my screen and items get cut off.

- I love the feature to close a window by hitting the letter "x" on a highlighted window, and selecting multiple windows by hitting "s". But I think it would be a smoother to combine these features into one key, so if you type "x" it crosses out a window in the list but doesn't immediately close it. Instead, the next window in the list would be highlighted and you could press "x" again to select that one for closing, or keep hitting tab to cycle through the list. (And if you type "x" while highlighting a window already crossed-out, it can remove the mark to close it). Only when you release "Alt" should the windows close. (Similarily for "m" to minimize)

- Is it possible to get a list of a window's tabs in Windows 7? I notice Win 7's task bar can break down the various tabs in IE windows. It might be nice to be able to use VistaSwitcher to cycle through these (people may have too many to include in the window instance list, but maybe there could be a new list). In any case, it'll be interesting to see if other app developers explose their windows' tabs for this purpose.

Win+Tab shortcut is used by Flip 3D, you need to disable it, then restart your PC and apply this shortcut to VistaSwitcher.


It looks better when it is calculated automatically. Also it solves some problems with preview when changing the screen resolution or primary monitor.


I know it would be better... There is an issue I haven't solved yet -- the current algorithm requires to make the window active before closing it. Windows Taskbar works the same way.


I don't know if there is a public API to get the list of tabs. I'll check this later.

VistaSwitcher Beta 2 is coming soon!

I'll consider to add an option or a command line switch for it.

You're right that it's better to calculate the size automatically, but could you add a check to ensure that it's not wider than the screen dimensions (constraining the width of the preview if it's too large)?

I can put up a screenshot if it's not clear what the problem is.

Thanks,

Ok, it should be added in "beta 3". Thanks for feedback!

Beta 2 has been released today!

It crashes very often on my 64-bit Windows 7.