Alt-Tab task switcher replacement like DESQ key?

[FUBARinSFO]

Hi:

Anybody know of a hot-key task switcher for Windows that operated like
the DESQ key? I want to be able to switch among numbered tasks using
a <key>-1, <key>-2, ..., <key>-9 sort of deal. So I can switch in
chosen sequence rather than have to wade up and down the z-order stack
using Alt-Tab. 1-3-1-3-2-4 and so forth.

-- Roy Zider

 

[Bob CP]

Hi:

Anybody know of a hot-key task switcher for Windows that operated like
the DESQ key? I want to be able to switch among numbered tasks using
a <key>-1, <key>-2, ..., <key>-9 sort of deal. So I can switch in
chosen sequence rather than have to wade up and down the z-order stack
using Alt-Tab. 1-3-1-3-2-4 and so forth.

-- Roy Zider

Ahhh, Desqview. (Still use it on a DOS machine ;>) )You can probably do
it (and a lot of other program-specific tasks) with Autohotkey. The
most direct way (if all your tasks fit on the taskbar) is to assign a
key combination to create a mouse-click.

 

[FUBARinSFO]

Bob:

Yes, I still use DESQView on a DOS machine, and am incredibly
productive with it, unlike mousing around in Windows.

I don't think assigning a hot key to a mouse click is going to do it.
The positions jump around all over the place, as the order changes. I
need a deterministic way to invoke the task.

-- Roy

 

[Bob CP]

Bob:

Yes, I still use DESQView on a DOS machine, and am incredibly
productive with it, unlike mousing around in Windows.

I don't think assigning a hot key to a mouse click is going to do it.
The positions jump around all over the place, as the order changes. I
need a deterministic way to invoke the task.

-- Roy

Still, check out Autohotkey anyway. I didn't go too far into what was
possible as far as task switching, and figured the most direct way was
to pick the buttons on the taskbar. Do a search in the AHK help for
Winset.

 

[FUBARinSFO]

Bob:

I did browse the threads on the forum, and saw that task switching was
covered in quite a bit of posts. There was a lot of code, some of
which claimed to work for some people.

The essential strategy seemed to be centered around to be able to key
in something that would hook to the name/title/caption of the windows
process to bring it into focus. One of the major efforts was to
emulate the way emacs switches among windows, but i'm not familiar
enough with emacs to know if that's good enough to start with as a
markup.

I have AutoMate 6, for instance, and should be able to do it with that
and not have to use yet another kb macro language to implement it.

Here's the head of a long series of posts on the issue. As the guy
says, and I can confirm from personal experience with other macro-key
automation efforts, you can waste a lot of time with this.
http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic1040.html

Searching for 'winset' I get 1392 matches on the AHK community forum,
but 0 (zero) hits for 'deaq'. So whatevern model they are trying to
implement, it's not based on the DESQ key - number model.

Here's a thread where the guy is trying to tap the 'win' key (press-
release) to activate something,without interfering with his other hot
key win+key shortcuts. This press-release action, like Google Desktop
Search double click of control key, is what the "DESQ" key does (Alt
key) (tho just once). If I'm going to have to write the code, I'm
going to start with Automate 6, I guess.

-- Roy


http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic46323.html&highlight=winset

 

[FUBARinSFO]

Found a program ActivateByNum which brings Windows 7 task-switching
functionality to XP. Not what I'm looking for, but at lteast the
problem is recognized enough to have a new solution available in
Windows 7.

http://www.techblogger.org/2009/07/...task-switching-keys-to-vista-or-xp-downloads/

 

[BillW50]

In
FUBARinSFO typed on Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:24:46 -0700 (PDT):

Found a program ActivateByNum which brings Windows 7 task-switching
functionality to XP. Not what I'm looking for, but at lteast the
problem is recognized enough to have a new solution available in
Windows 7.

http://www.techblogger.org/2009/07/...task-switching-keys-to-vista-or-xp-downloads/

How about using a virtual desktop? There are many of them even free from
Microsoft. Although my favorite is AltDesk by Gladiators Software. And I
switch tasks by hitting a hotkey to the one that I want to focus on.