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On Windows 10, how can I quickly find and focus an already running application (by window name), across virtual desktops ?

Say I have 6 virtual desktops, if I'm on desktop #6 and Chrome Gmail is running on desktop #2 I'd like to quickly (2-3 keystrokes) find & switch to that Gmail tab, wherever else I am on my desktops.

Typically, I often have 6+ virtual desktops, with perhaps 5-10 windows on each. I'm visually impaired (brain damage), so I tend to avoid having to "look at things" and visually search for stuff (too many times things "hide in plain sight" in my case ;-P). I much rather prefer to type a few letters to find an exact match or use key bindings.

I've spent many hours searching for solutions, tried a few apps (Cortana of course, Launchy,PowerToys run, Executor and a Autohotkey script, but none really solved my issue.

Related:

  • AHK script, old. It's a start, there's gotta be some updates around (2010!).
  • similar question - I posted this 2 years ago. Funny I forgot about it and kinda sad too. (insert mad pulling hair smily here)
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  • I am a simpleton. I look in the Task Bar and it tells me right away what is running, unless it is already on the screen. I have way too many apps to launch stuff if it is not running.
    – John
    Nov 17, 2020 at 21:39
  • My question is for apps already running.
    – deryb
    Nov 18, 2020 at 1:36
  • Yes, and I just look in the Task Bar as the Apps running are generally there (the Apps I use at any rate).
    – John
    Nov 18, 2020 at 1:54
  • This doesn't help with multiple desktops (only the active one) and if Chrome (in my example, or any other app) has say 10 windows opened. I'd rather avoid the wasted time to look around...
    – deryb
    Nov 18, 2020 at 2:11
  • I didn't want to answer my own question (yet), but here's another related question I posted here (on autohotkey specifically) with a close answer. it's an AHK script which lists all windows (system-wide) and switches & focus to the selected window. It lacks text search though.
    – deryb
    Nov 19, 2020 at 21:51

2 Answers 2

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I know this is a couple of years old, but thought it might be of interest still. Switcheroo 1 does this very nicely.

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    Jun 5, 2023 at 16:17
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Ok, PowerToys Run is the closest answer. It does pretty much what I wanted, plus it shows on which desktop (virtual desktop's name) it is open.

The only feature missing is to also search across all open tabs. But at least it's quite close, I suggested that extra feature to the team behind PowerToys. :-)

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