The topic PowerToys is potentially getting a new feature that lets you Alt-Tab within an app is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
Out of all the keyboard shortcuts available on Windows, I think Alt-Tab holds the trophy for the one I use the most. It’s really handy for quickly swapping between windows, especially if you want to flit between two specific apps quickly.
However, what if you wanted to swap between two tabs in an app? Well, Windows doesn’t have anything like that just yet, but one person wants to fix that. A new entry has appeared on the PowerToys GitHub project that proposes a new “in-app Alt-Tab,” and while it’s not guaranteed to make it in just yet, things are looking up.
As spotted by Beta News, a new proposal for a PowerToys feature has appeared on GitHub. It details a module called AltWindowCycle, which will allow you to press Alt + ` to swap between tabs within an app. Yes, that’s Alt and the Backtick symbol, which doesn’t roll off the tongue as well as ‘Alt-Tab’ does, but I’ll take it anyway.
Introduces a new utility: AltWindowCycle to quickly switch between windows from the same process using Alt + `.
It works like Alt + Tab, but scoped to the app you’re already in. Perfect for juggling multiple browser windows, terminals, or editor instances.
Rutkas uploaded a video of the tool in action, which you can see above. At first, it looks like Rutkas is using Alt-Tab to select a new window, but when you look closer, you’ll see that he’s actually cycling between different File Explorer tabs. This is the primary strength of AltWindowCycle; it allows people to quickly switch which tab is active in a specific app. I’d love to see this work in apps like Chrome.
At the time of writing, the feature is in development and hasn’t been confirmed to be coming to PowerToys yet. However, it seems to be coming along nicely, and I don’t see any reason to believe it won’t eventually arrive, potentially with a new name.