Is there a window switcher for GNOME that shows the actual window?

In Ubuntu 16.04 I installed a Compiz plugin with an alternative alt — tab switcher that had the nifty feature that until I let go of the Alt key, it hid all other windows and showed only the one I was about to switch to. This is very useful when one has a bunch of open terminals that don’t look all that different as thumbnailed previews.

After upgrading to Ubuntu 18.04 this can’t be used anymore (save for explicitly switching back to Unity, which I’d rather avoid for unrelated reasons).

Does anyone know of a similar switcher I could install for the GNOME desktop?

2 Answers 2

You can use the Coverflow Alt-Tab extension for GNOME shell. It’s a

Replacement of Alt — Tab , iterates through windows in a cover-flow manner.

Refer to this for installing and managing GNOME extensions: How do I install and manage GNOME Shell extensions?

Another alternative would be using the Alt + Esc combination. It doesn’t show any overlay or provide anything fancy, it just switches to the next window and so on.

If you like the old panel/taskbar style interface where you can always see what the title of your windows are and you can identify windows by their fixed locations on the taskbar you can try the gnome dash to panel extension.

If you use multiple workspaces, you can customize is in the software center after installing gnome-tweak-tool

I had to tweak it A LOT to adjust the padding, hide unnecessary buttons, ungroup applications, isolate workspaces etc, but I found that in the end it was far more productive than trying to hunt for the right terminal among a sea of identical terminal previews that rearrange themselves continuously.

How to enable Windows Key + number in gnome to switch to a window in the taskbar or panel

In Windows 7/8 and Unity, you can use WindowsKey + 1 to switch to the first application on the taskbar/panel, WindowsKey + 2 for the second etc.

What do I need to do to enable that in gnome-desktop?

4 Answers 4

GNOME 3 does not have this functionality built-in, as you have discovered.

As a workaround, create a keyboard shortcut for a RaiseOrRun.sh script

1. Create /home/ /RaiseOrRun.sh script
2. Run chmod +x /home/ /RaiseOrRun.sh to make it executable.
3. Open GNOME Settings, Keyboard
4. For each application «Added to Favorites»:
   1. Scroll to the bottom and press the + button to add a Custom Shortcut
      • Name: Choose any name
      • Command: /home/ /RaiseOrRun.sh
      • Example: /home/ /RaiseOrRun.sh chromium chromium-browser
   2. Click the Edit button and press the Shortcut Key you want (ie: Super + 1 )
   3. Click Add to confirm

This solution knows nothing of the GNOME 3 Dash. If you want to maintain the Super + 1 for first app in Favorites, you will have to keep the shortcut key and Dash position in sync manually.

Display the WM_CLASS for each open application with wmctrl -l -x

Gnome doesn’t have a way to do that specifically, but here are some other ways to switch applications quickly.

You can use Gnome’s features for switching applications. Gnome has a video and tutorial on the subject here. Some highlights include typing (if you want to switch to Firefox, you can hit «super» then type «fir» and then press enter) and using the activities overview (bump the top-left corner of the screen with your mouse, then click the window you want).

You can use workspaces. Gnome does offer shortcut keys for switching to specific workspaces, but they’re not set by default. You can put your windows fullscreen in different workspaces and use these shortcuts for switching between them.

For example, you could bind Super + 1 to «Switch to workspace 1» and so on. Then you could put Firefox in workspace 1, Libreoffice in workspace 2, a music player in workspace 3, and then switch between them with your shortcuts.

You can find these keyboard shortcuts and others in Settings > Keyboard. I’ve set some possible shortcuts in the image below.

How can I switch between windows of the same application?

I often have more than ten windows open at the same time and some of them are of the same applications, notably gnome-terminal.

Often when I am currently on one terminal, I just want to get to another terminal. With Alt-Tab you have to choose from windows of all the applications, which is a pain. Even with Gnome3 which groups windows by applications and gives preview of windows with Alt-` it isn’t enough because it’s hard to distinguish terminal windows from previews. You can only tell which terminal does what when the full view is shown in most cases.

So is there an application/windowing system/gnome shortcut that shows you only other windows of the same application when you are switching?

5 Answers 5

If you install the CompizConfig Settings Manager then you can access and change the Compiz settings that can do this. Once installed launch it via System->Preferences.

If you normally use Alt + Tab then go the «Static Application Switcher». (This plugin shows quite small previews.)

If you normally use Windows/Super + Tab then go to «Shift Switcher Plugin». (This plugin shows quite large previews.)

In the settings for either of the plugins you can set the keyboard (or mouse) shortcut for Next Window (Group) and/or Previous Window (Group).

(Note: as well as the Static Application Switcher and Shift Switcher you may wish to experiment with the Application Switcher and Ring Switcher)

This is old question, but I had the same problem and found Alt + ` switches the windows of the same application. Thus, sharing the same for reference.

You write notably gnome-terminal, which leads me to believe you are unaware of the terminal multiplexers? Then you’re in for a treat!

A multiplexer sits like a layer between you and the terminal, making it possible to have multiple separate terminal sessions in a single terminal window. You can also easily have several windows within the same multiplexer session.

Another nice feature with these is that you can detach them from your terminal session, leaving them running in the background. Perfect when you want to start a long-running job, truly move it to the background and then be able to pull it back out later on.

The previous champ was GNU Screen but it is being replaced by tmux, which is my personal favorite. If you try tmux then be sure to also check out teamocil.

How do I “alt-tab” between windows using Gnome 3?

All of the references I’ve found for Gnome 3 keyboard shortcuts list that alt + tab switches between applications and alt + ` switches between windows (some actually say alt +

, but I think they’re mistaken, and I’ve tried both anyway). Maybe that functionality works for Gnome 3 on Fedora or something, because no matter the key combo I try, nothing will switch between windows except for opening the alt + tab dialog and using arrow keys to navigate it (and at that point it’s faster to just use a mouse..).

How do I quickly switch between windows in Gnome 3?

8 Answers 8

In GNOME 3, you can permanently change Alt+Tab to switch between windows, instead of switching between applications:

• Open Settings
• Select Devices->Keyboard
• Search for «Switch Windows» and enter Alt+Tab as the new shortcut.
• A dialog will tell you the shortcut is already being used by «Switch Applications», select Replace to confirm.

In GNOME Shell, you should be able to switch between multiple windows of the same app by running Alt + the key above tab on your keyboard . For US users, that shortcut is Alt + ` but other keyboard layouts are different.

This is different than Unity in Ubuntu 11.10 which uses Alt + ` for all layouts. (I expect that behavior would improve in Ubuntu 12.04).

Note: the Alternatetab extension was deprecated as of GNOME 3.30 in favor of the built-in «Switch Windows» keyboard shortcut

GNOME Tweak Tool at Extensions tab has an «Alternatetab» option, that allows to use standard Alt + Tab to switch between windows without grouping them.

GNOME tweak tool could be installed as follows:

I know this question is old but it was a top result when I searched this problem and there’s no solution here.

The solution that I, and I think the OP, was looking for is Super + Tab .

This is the «change applications» action in the keyboard shortcuts.

Check the shortcut tab in gnome’s keyboard settings.

For me (Ubuntu 13.10), Switch windows of one application is set to Alt+Caps+Tab.

Additionall, there is the Alt+F6 shortcut to immediately switch windows of one application – it only applys to one workspace.

Hit alt-tab to get to the app-switching «toast message» (the big balloon with the icon that appears in the middle of your screen).

With alt key down, then hit the arrow keys -> to go to the left and right in the app menu. So you need two hands to switch between applications.

On my 13.10, after hitting the left-arrow or right arrow keys once, the alt-tab left-hand-only key-combination continues to work again.

In ubuntu 12.04 precise pangolin you go to

CompizConfig Settings Manager > Window Management

and tick «Static Application Switcher»

To install CCSM:

On my french Ubuntu 18.04 instance, I change, as wrote by @jesus-h :
Switch window of an application directly or something like that (changer de fenêtre d’une application directement in french),
from Alt+F6 to Alt+F1 which I can do with left hand

I enjoyed in ubuntu 14 or/and 16 to switch beetween windows in application using mouse wheel over left application icon.

I have quite permanently two firefox windows, one usual for my agenda and trusted web sites (my nextcloud agenda, my job gitlab…) and one private for «all comming» web sites to avoid permanent cookies and traces

How do I easily switch between windows rather than applications in GNOME Shell?

Currently if I hold ALT + TAB and then while still holding down ALT I press TAB I am able to go between applications in a little view and then when I release all the keys that application and all its windows come to the front.
And this is very useful, but I would like to know if there is a way of switching between individual windows with this keyboard shortcut in the same way rather than grouping windows with an application to switch to?

I am running Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 with GNOME 3.18.

6 Answers 6

You can use Alt + ` (the key above Tab ) to cycle between windows of the same application.

You can even mix Alt + Tab to cycle between application and Alt + ` to cycle between windows of the selected application.

There is an exposition of the rationale in this blog post from Canonical’s Didier Roche. It’s part of a series discussing the development of gnome integration in Ubuntu 17.10.

Alternatetab is just the Extension you were looking for!

Follow the Managing Extensions instructions here in order to activate it (you should read the text before that section too though). As it is a pre-installed Extensions you will only need to activate it (unless you have removed it, in which case you will need to follow the Installing a new Extension section).

So now upon pressing ALT + TAB and then pressing TAB without letting go of ALT (until you have selected the window you want to switch to — then simply release both keys and it will put that window on top) you should be able to switch between individual windows as opposed to applications!