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!
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.
HotKeySet("{ESC}", "Terminate")) like here: autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/functions/HotKeySet.htm
May 28, 2014 at 5:40
Why install a program (like AutoIt) when Windows can do this out of the box?
Save the following into a file called auto_switch.vbs:
Option Explicit
Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Do
WScript.Sleep 30000
WshShell.SendKeys("%{TAB}")
Loop
Change the 30000 to be the number of milliseconds (so 30000 = 30 seconds) between Alt+Tab presses. Double click on it to start it running.
If you want to stop it, then you need to kill the process called "wscript".
If you want to switch between explicitly named programs then this code will flip between "Inbox - Microsoft Outlook" and "Firefox" every 30 seconds:
Option Explicit
Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Do
WScript.Sleep 30000
WshShell.AppActivate("Inbox - Microsoft Outlook")
' WshShell.SendKeys "% r"
WScript.Sleep 30000
WshShell.AppActivate("Firefox")
' WshShell.SendKeys "% r"
Loop
It's worth noting that if the applications in the example above are minimized then they will remain minimized even after they are activated.
To restore the window as well, remove the ' in front of the WshShell.SendKeys. This will make the script active the window and then immediately send the restore key combination Alt+SpaceBar, r. If you're using a non-English version of Windows, you may need to change this shortcut.
AppActivate will attempt to match an exact window title first and, if it can't, will then go for the first window that begins with that string.
AppActivate call inside a loop. Short of whitelisting the script or using another virus checker I'm not sure what to suggest, sorry.
WshShell.SendKeys("~");
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.
The following allows you to switch between 6 programs without having to name them. Basically, enter 1 less {TAB} than the number of windows you want to switch between, and don't have any extraneous open windows.
Works for up to 6 windows as far as I know, probably more.
Option Explicit
Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Do
WScript.Sleep 1000
WshShell.SendKeys("%({TAB}{TAB}{TAB}{TAB}{TAB})")
Loop
