Application to automatically switch between two applications in Windows

Question

Does an application exist that will cause the computer to switch (bring in to focus) between two different applications, on a timer? This is for Windows 7.

I need this for a screen that will display publicly to customers. I want the screen to switch between two different applications every, say, 30 seconds. I figure there are enough businesses out there will customer-facing monitors these days that something simple like this must exist!

Answer 1

Yes, it is called AutoIt.

You would use something like this:

While 1 ;loop indefinitely
    WinActivate("notepad","") ;give focus to notepad
    Sleep(30000) ;sleep 30 seconds
    WinActivate("wordpad","") ;give focus to wordpad
    Sleep(30000) ;sleep 30 seconds
WEnd

WinActivate() gives focus to the window with exact or closest matching title, in cases where there are two that fit, it gives focus to the most recently activated one. Sleep() is in milliseconds, so 30000 is 30 seconds.

Answer 2

If there will not be any interaction between the customers and the screens/applications, you should simply take a screenshot of the programs and then create a simple slide show with a 30-second timer and endless repeat.

Generally, companies that use customer facing monitors that display programs for advertisement purposes do not use "live" programs. You want to control the interface, and allowing the chance of some error to show is not what you want. They'll record screen videos of the programs working, or simple take screenshots for static display.

Otherwise, there are specific dashboards that are used that display specific information, and these are not switched between, generally. Or, they're switched using A/V equipment so that each program is running on a different computer so as to minimize, once again, the chance of failure.

Answer 3

AutoTab is very simple.

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/System/autotab/Freeware.htm