Seeking Software: Windows Lister and Switcher

[ycomp]

I'm looking for a specific kind of program that I think should exist but I cannot find it, perhaps I don't know the correct google terms to use.

I'd like a program that will display all windows (Titles of all windows) in a list and when I click one, it will activate that window.

The point is so that I can switch easily between these windows.

It also must have a feature where I can filter somehow... by window title keyword would be nice, by processname would also be good.

Does anyone know of anything that fits the description? or anything close?

thanks

 

[asvent]

So you want something like Mac OS X's Expose. Once upon a time, though maybe it was quietly removed in Windows 7 (it doesn't seem to be in 8) if you pressed the Windows key + Tab you'd get a kind of stacked card view of all open windows. That was as close as Windows ever really came to what you want. Though you can still do the classic alt-tab (hold down alt) in Windows 8 and then click on whatever window you want to bring to the foreground. That gets you probably 75% of the way to what you want.

 

[ycomp]

So you want something like Mac OS X's Expose. Once upon a time, though maybe it was quietly removed in Windows 7 (it doesn't seem to be in 8) if you pressed the Windows key + Tab you'd get a kind of stacked card view of all open windows. That was as close as Windows ever really came to what you want. Though you can still do the classic alt-tab (hold down alt) in Windows 8 and then click on whatever window you want to bring to the foreground. That gets you probably 75% of the way to what you want.

no, no... you misunderstand me...

I have very similar to expose with dexpot - which is a really great program. Better Desktop Tool is also good at expose, but dexpot blows it out of the water on the virtual desktop management front.

I decided to roll my own... I've got the prototype up and running, I just keep on adding features so it's not completely ready.

Left click on the item and it brings the window to the foreground, right click and it minimizes....

You see, expose is great.. but it's still hunting for windows... So the more windows you have, the longer it takes you to find what your looking for - but it is a pretty steep increase... because the windows get smaller and there are more of them. So if you have say 20 windows, it will take you a bit of hunting to find the one you want - especially if they are mostly from the same program, so look similar.

With this little program, I can narrow in quickly... I've added a feature too where I can save windows to lists in new tabs, so each tab can have 2 groups (top and bottom) that you can add windows too. This way you can organize your windows well and switch through them very quickly. But I guess it's overkill for most people, but useful for me.

Especially useful when the windows are full-screen.



1 Worklist open:



These are just windows I opened up for the screenshots, it is not a real-life work scenario. Probably from these screenshots it would be hard to see why there is any use for it, the taskbar is just as good for these few windows

 

[asvent]

Okay... Well, good luck with that, but I'm left a little confused why you were asking people if they knew of a program like that. Not to belabor the point, but when you say

Does anyone know of anything that fits the description? or anything close?

At the very least you've got to admit it's easy for someone to get the (apparently) wrong impression.

 

[ycomp]

Okay... Well, good luck with that, but I'm left a little confused why you were asking people if they knew of a program like that. Not to belabor the point, but when you say

Does anyone know of anything that fits the description? or anything close?

At the very least you've got to admit it's easy for someone to get the (apparently) wrong impression.

Well, because at the time I was trying to search google for something like it... and came up with nothing except winlister which didn't quite fit the bill. Then I posted this and while waiting for an answer got fed up and did some coding. It works quite well but the problem is, now I've got the coding itch and want to keep adding improvements instead of doing some real work, lol

I'm using it for a specific work scenario - it's not meant to replace dexpot's expose type feature or the windows taskbar... Although alt-tab I never use, I guess I would use it if I didn't have dexpot installed.

I must admit my examples in the screenshots suck, I just couldn't think of any good ones quickly and didn't want to post my actual work desktop. But my utility (or whatever I was looking for before I made my utility - i guess you can call all of this my "use case") is more meant to switch between windows when they are either fullscreen or arranged nicely like side by side horizontally or vertically. Not haphazard thrown everywhere like in the screenshots. Like if you have a bunch of trading charts or web browsers windows you need to quickly change back and forth between.