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Is there any way to switch applications in Windows by typing the application name?

When I have many applications open I find Alt+Tab switching to be slower. Is there an alternate way to switch between applications?

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3 Answers 3

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You can use (Windows 7)

Ctrl-Shift-Esc    - Starts task manager (Activate Applications Tab if necessary)
Start typing      - selects an application (by window caption)
Enter (or ALT-S)  - activates the application

Just tried it at home (Windows 8.1) and the process is a bit more convoluted unfortunately

Ctrl-Shift-Esc    - Starts task manager (Activate Applications Tab if necessary)
Start typing      - selects an application (by window caption)
Right Arrow       - Expands the process
Right Arrow       - Navigates to the window of the process
Enter             - activates the application
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  • Thanks for the response, but Enter doesn't activate the application.. ! Jul 16, 2015 at 7:51
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    ALT-S will switch to the one highlighted
    – Jon
    Jul 16, 2015 at 9:17
  • Don't know why not, it does on my system (switch to is the default option) but the ALT-S option provided by Jon is a valid alternative. Jul 16, 2015 at 9:35
  • The Windows 8.1 method also works in Windows 10. But it's worth noting it doesn't seem to work for apps that can have a lot of seperate processes running like conemu or firefox.
    – Zhenhir
    May 4, 2018 at 11:08
  • Not working for me on Windows 7.
    – Ghos3t
    Jun 7, 2018 at 8:17
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I was looking for a application with the same functionality that you mentioned and I found this software called Switcheroo, it works exactly as I wanted. It is open source and it is available as a portable download.

A short description about this software:-

Switcheroo allows you to quickly switch to any window by typing in just a few characters of its title. It's inspired by Emacs's IDO mode buffer switching and JetBrains' ReSharper.

The default key binding for Switcheroo is Alt + Space. Pressing this key combination will bring up the Switcheroo window, which lists the titles of every open window. Typing filters the list. Press Enter to switch to the selected window. Press Ctrl + Enter to close the selected window.

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    I like this answer, but (even though it might seem redundant) you might want to add how it addresses the original question (i.e. it allows text input, searching, etc.) and maybe even a short blurb about the software itself. Not everyone is going to click the link automatically, unfortunately. =P May 4, 2018 at 12:07
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No there is no way to write the name of application to switch between applications.

Alternate way is to simply go to the taskbar and select the application.

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