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I would have expected this to be a very simple task: switching between windows of the same application, but I can't seem to find the shortcut to do it. I generally have several windows of applications like Chrome (each window holding all the tabs related to a particular topic).

The behaviour I am looking for is what is implemented in Mac OSX with the Cmd+~ keyboard shortcut.

Is there a way to achieve the same on Windows 7?

jlevis
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balajeerc
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    If the program is open on your task bar, hitting the Windows Key and the number of the location on the task bar will cycle through those applications. My web browser is pinned to the first location, so Windows Key + 1 cycles through my open web browser windows. – Nick Garvey Jun 24 '12 at 05:52
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    Ctrl + Tab will cycle through all the opened tab of browser.. – hriziya Jun 24 '12 at 05:54
  • @NickGarvey Well, that works but not exactly what I am looking for. – balajeerc Jun 24 '12 at 09:13
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    You can download Easy Windows Switcher https://neosmart.net/EasySwitch/ it does just that. Very convenient app and it works with any Windows version – Andrew Bogdanov Jun 16 '21 at 08:30
  • I didn't like any of the solutions proposed here, I was really looking for the equivalent of Alt+~ on MacOS and Ubuntu. In case someone was looking for the same thing as me, this is what worked for me: https://superuser.com/a/1721255/694663 – Mouradif Jan 06 '23 at 13:41

4 Answers4

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There is no such a keyboard shortcut but holding Ctrl + clicking on the icon in the taskbar repeatedly will cycle through that program's open windows.

NanoNova
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Joey
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    That's great to find, although avoiding that click somehow would have been easier. Ubuntu does it so well. – sgX Nov 23 '20 at 20:06
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    Just found out holding `Shift` + clicking on the icon in the taskbar will create a new window of the program. – NanoNova Mar 31 '22 at 03:12
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See https://superuser.com/questions/435602/shortcut-in-windows-7-to-switch-between-same-applications-windows-like-cmd.

Scott's answer is the closest one I've found to doing this. To summarize what he said:

Win + n where n is the number position of the application in the TaskBar. Then to cycle through, keep Win down and press n again.

(Updated thanks to @ZYinMD's comments - but also see their 1st comment)

Blue Raspberry
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    If you use `ctrl+win+n` it'd skip the thumbnail view and instantly switch exactly like mac – ZYinMD Jul 28 '20 at 16:23
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    Good to know. Note also that the thumbnails are only shown if a program has more than one window available; in that case, using `ctrl+win+n` will default to the first one. – Blue Raspberry Jul 30 '20 at 01:50
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    Same can be said to `Win + n`. Speaking of which, you may want to edit your answer to be `win + n n n` instead of `win + n`. Also, n is not "the number of the application", it's "the position of the application on Taskbar", you may want to edit that too. – ZYinMD Jul 31 '20 at 15:20
  • Ah gotcha, have updated so it's clearer. – Blue Raspberry Aug 01 '20 at 19:00
  • Wow! That is even better than the way it works on mac. Thanks for sharing! – Adrian Moisa Apr 29 '21 at 21:11
  • This is the real thing, thank you (thumbs up and an upvote of course) – George Smith May 01 '21 at 01:55
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    This doesn't seem to work on Windows 11. ctrl + win + n opens Narrator settings. – Nordling Art Jun 22 '22 at 17:20
  • @NordlingArt I've confirmed that `ctrl + win + n` does work. It only opens narrator settings if you use the literal `n` key. `n` is a number. Take another look at this answer, "where n is the number position of the application in the TaskBar". Otherwise how would windows know which app you wanted to target? – acat Dec 22 '22 at 16:55
  • @acat thank you for clarifying what n meant in this context. On Mac it targets the app currently in focus and toggles it’s windows one by one. I was hoping Windows did the same. – Nordling Art Dec 24 '22 at 10:31
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Use AltEsc for fast switching without any GUI pop up

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts

Blowsie
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  • @mix3d no. test it yourself? – Blowsie Dec 11 '17 at 14:10
  • for me, thats all it does. Windows 10. Which could be the problem, since you posted for win7 – mix3d Dec 12 '17 at 14:33
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    Then i guess you have something overriding your shortcuts. Alt + Esc is an official windows 7,8,10 shortcut as seen here.https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts – Blowsie Dec 13 '17 at 12:00
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    My mistake. It seemed to minimize because the window just "disappeared", but in reality it was "sent to the back" of all the other windows open. `Cycle through items in the order in which they were opened` is the official wording. Learned something new! It DOES still cycle between ALL open windows, however, and not application specific – mix3d Dec 13 '17 at 17:20
  • This shortcut will only cycle through windows that are open on your current desktop if you have multiple desktops enabled on your machine. So if you're on desktop 1, it won't cycle over to desktop 2 to continue. – Maveric Apr 12 '21 at 12:26
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Maybe related: If you want that the windows open directly when click on the stacked taskbar symbol (instead of opening the list), you can add the DWORD "LastActiveClick" to 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

and set it to 1.

raoulsson
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