I do include Minimize-if-already-active though. I like to be able to temporary flip an application into focus (e.g. Outlook) and then return to what I was previously working on.
Plus a tweak: When launching, programs may open in the background because Windows attempts to prevent applications stealing focus when you are working in another program. I overcome this by focusing the tray before launching.
It uses AHK's window groups.
I only regret having written this in AHK v1, which was a bit of a pain in the neck.
I intend rewrite them in AHK v2, which looks like a halfway step to ES6 with lambdas, closures and all. So many quirks gone! I tried it a bit and it felt more fun and productive.
As a simpler alternative (which I use for work), one can pin the 10 most used applications on the taskbar and do:
- Win+<N> to launch, toggle, or choose a window from the Nth application
- Ctrl+Win+<N> to launch, toggle or cycle through the windows from the Nth application
- Shift+Win+<N> to launch a new window
- Alt+Win+<N> to bring up the Jump List
Then you can use a simpler hotkey manager (like PowerToys' Keyboard Manager) to bind to the Ctrl+Win+<N> shortcuts.
> Plus a tweak: When launching, programs may open in the background because Windows attempts to prevent applications stealing focus when you are working in another program. I overcome this by focusing the tray before launching.
Aaah! That explains some things. That does happen to me sometimes and it's a bit annoying. I got used to pressing my hotkey again when I noticed the taskbar icon blinking green to bring up the new window, or just spamming WinActivate and hope for the best. Thanks!
Yes, Win+<number> is also a gem that almost seems to be deliberately hidden, (like Win+T, Win+B). One thing that helps is to see actual numbers in the taskbar, what, to my knowledge, is currently possible in Windows 10 (only) with third-party app: https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-numberer . For startup
will show same number for grouped windows so cycling will work.
Btw most tabbed interfaces have the same bindings for focusing first, second ... last tab (Ctrl+<number> in most browsers, Ctrl+9 for the last tab, usually).
I like to apply same "tab principles" to taskbar, so last thing missing here is to be able to "Ctrl+PgUp/PgDown" through windows in Taskbar order just like in sane browsers (with Win in place of Ctrl).
I attempted to do it with AHK but failed miserably, but luckily another third-party app, (7+ Taskbar Tweaker, from the same author as Numberer) can do that through advanced settings. Config in gist: https://gist.github.com/myfonj/62b4e0d393f4a97df5e9904df5e77...
(Sadly, none of those will probably ever work outside Windows 10 (?))
I do include Minimize-if-already-active though. I like to be able to temporary flip an application into focus (e.g. Outlook) and then return to what I was previously working on.
Plus a tweak: When launching, programs may open in the background because Windows attempts to prevent applications stealing focus when you are working in another program. I overcome this by focusing the tray before launching.