How to setup click on taskbar icon to cycle thru windows?

[nuspieds]

Hi,

I have a laptop that was previously running Win 7 Ultimate x64 andI upgraded that to Win 8 Pro x64 quite some time back. On this laptop, when I have several windows open for an app on my task bar, when I repeatedly left-click on the task bar icon, it cycles through the app's windows. That is, as I click, the app window will show up in the foreground and the next click will show the app's next window, etc.

Now I have a new laptop, with Win 8 Pro x64 pre-installed and I no longer have the cycle-through feature. When I click on an app that has multiple windows, all it does is show me the preview windows down by the taskbar.

I searched and searched and could not find where such an option exists for me to enable that feature to cycle through when I click and I couldn't find anything. Nor was I able to find any posts on the matter.

Does anyone know how I can enable this feature on my new laptop so that both are functioning the same?

Thanks!

 

[topgundcp]

Would this help ?
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/10135-window-switcher-shortcut-create-windows-8-a.html?filter[1]=Shortcuts

 

[nuspieds]

Hi,

Thanks, but no it doesn't.

You see, on my other laptop (the one that originally had Win 7 Ultimate x64), I don't have any special taskbar software installed. On that PC, when I have, for example, 3 Notepad windows open, when I click on the Notepad icon in my Taskbar, Windows just automatically cycles through the Notepad windows, bringing them into foreground focus.

But on my new PC, if I have 3 Notepad windows open, when I click on the Notepad icon in my Taskbar, all that happens is that Windows displays the 3 mini/preview windows above the icon in the Taskbar.

Again, I don't recall doing anything to enable the cycle-through functionality on my old laptop.

What happens on your PC? Try it with Notepad: Add Notepad to your Taskbar, open 3 Notepad sessions, then repeatedly click on the Notepad icon in your Taskbar. What happens?

 

[FuturDreamz]

alt-tab?


That being said, it should pop-up a preview of all of the tabs, and you should be able to hover over each preview to show that window.

 

[nuspieds]

alt-tab?

1) Alt-tab operates on all open windows for all apps;
2) Alt-tab cycles through mini-displays of those windows and once you release the alt-tab, the window that it was on last is the one that comes to the foreground;
3) That's not the way my old laptop that was upgraded from Win 7 to Win 8 works. As stated, as you click on the icon in the Taskbar, each window of the app--and only that app--is cycled through and brought to the foreground. For example, assuming that I'm only running Notepad and Paint. Notepad has 3 open windows and Paint has 5. When I click on the Notepad icon in my Taskbar, Windows displays Notepad's first window in the foreground. When I click on it again, the second Notepad window is displayed in the foreground. When I click on it again, the third Notepad window is displayed in the foreground. When I click on it again, the FIRST Notepad window is brought to the foreground; etc.

I'm just looking to have the functionality I described in #3 above in my new Windows 8 Pro pre-installed laptop. I don't know what I did (if anything) in my old laptop to get that functionality, but I like it and I want it in my new laptop.

Thanks.

 

[pcRat]

Their closest I can come to that is rest the mouse over the notepad icon.
When the three images pop out, slide the mouse over each image to see a full size image.

 

[nuspieds]

Their closest I can come to that is rest the mouse over the notepad icon.
When the three images pop out, slide the mouse over each image to see a full size image.

My query isn't how to bring the windows to the foreground, but how do I make the new laptop function like the old one, where all I have to do is repeatedly click on the taskbar icon?Thanks!

 

[FuturDreamz]

I don't think you can.

 

[nuspieds]

Unless I have a special Windows 8 "bug" or something on my old laptop, then whatever Windows 8 UI functionality it has should also exist on my new laptop. Like I stated previously, the important difference is that the old was upgraded from Windows 7.

But I'm still curious...when you do it...e.g., put Notepad on your Taskbar and then open 3 windows and click the Notepad Taskbar icon multiple times, what happens?

 

[Ivo]

7 Taskbar Tweaker has an option for that: in the "Left click on combined item" select "Cycle through windows".

I don't know how well it works because I don't use grouping or combining. But what you describe sounds exactly what this option does.