BTT Window Switcher: Show Window Preview and hide the switcher popup

Feature Requests
1

Hi @Andreas_Hegenberg,

first of all I want to thank you for this App - I absolutely love to configure my custom workflows.

I am getting more and more used to the BTT Window Switcher - the ability to configure it overwhelmed me first. But now I’ve set it up closely to my needs.

While doing so, I’ve stumbled across the following idea:

  • Add a option to hide the Window Switcher popup (see screenshot one), and instead…
  • Show a Preview of the window at the exact position were the real window is located on the screen (screenshot 2)
  • Mark the preview of the window with a colored border
  • You could even include a information with the shortcuts into the preview of the window

The preview of the window is possible with the app AltTab, but they also do not have the ability to hide the windows switcher popup completely, so far (someone suggested this idea here: Add an option to hide the switcher popup. · Issue #4701 · lwouis/alt-tab-macos · GitHub)

Screenshot 1 - window switcher popup:

CleanShot 2025-09-26 at 14.15.39
CleanShot 2025-09-26 at 14.15.391817×1069 148 KB

Screenshot 2 - preview of the window:

CleanShot 2025-09-26 at 14.20.20
CleanShot 2025-09-26 at 14.20.201920×1081 228 KB

2

It’s an interesting idea, I’ll look into that.

3

I have added a first implementation of this in 5.675, will be available in ~10min:

To enable it, select this option

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//edit: made it a little bit smoother in 5.677

4

Ah and in 5.678 you can now set the width or height to 0 to get rid of the standard UI completely:

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image1610×712 112 KB

5

Amazing - the first look at it is really promising.

I’ll use it productively and give you feedback if I’ll find something.

Thank you very much Andreas.

6

Really nice. The BTT Window Switcher keeps getting better and better. What I'm still missing in the options below is:

“Show only hidden & minimized windows”

@Andreas_Hegenberg Do you think you could add that?

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7

After a few tests I have to say it works like a charm and I love the little animation you have built in when the preview changes.

Just a few things to mention so far:

  • I just found out that the following behavior is only valid for the BTT App itself. So for BTT there is no border/animation shown
    • In the “Show Window Switcher for All Open Apps“ action there is no border/animation if you select the currently focused window - However in the “Show Window Switcher for Active App” the border/animation is there –> I would prefer to show the border/animation to visualize clearly that the window is not focused yet and it is just a preview
  • I think we need a “Exclude Search Field” option, when I swipe through the preview windows there is one swipe where no other preview comes up. I think this is because the focus goes to the search field
  • An option to select the last window in the list would be handy. E.g. If I swipe down I want to select the next window in the list - if I swipe up I want to select the last window in the list.

I will test it the next days and give more feedback.

Thank you & best regards,

Volker

8

this is already possible via the initial focus setting (which defaults to search field)
I think I‘ll soon add a dedicated action for this window switcher mode and get rid of all settings not required here

9

Sorry I should have explained better. I already use the initial focus setting to the next window.

What I have done is:

  • Swipe down activates window switcher with focus on next window
  • Swipe up (if Window Switcher is active) triggers the action “Move Section in Active Window Switcher Up”
  • This way I can move forward and backward through the different previews by swiping up and down
  • With the Swipe Up you still can get the focus to the Search Field.

I like your idea to add a dedicated action for this window switcher mode in future to ease usability.

10

ah I see, I‘ll make sure to disable the search field behavior if no UI is visible

11

Used it the last days productively and it works like a charm.

Besides the topics mentioned above one more feedback / feature request:

  • Currently I've set it up in a way that I can swipe through the different window previews
  • After finding the right window I do a 3F Tap to "Activate Hovered Item in Window Switcher"
  • Often I forgot this step and it feels weird to need to do so
  • This step, could be avoided by a "Automatically Activate Hovered Item in Window Switcher after [time]" setting.

Have a great Sunday and thanks for your awesome work.

12

Forget my last request, I managed to do this by the "Execute named trigger after release" functionality in the advanced configuration of the 3F Swipe trigger.

13

5.716 adds this option!

14

Thank you, Andreas. It works perfectly, with one exception.

The option “Show only hidden & minimized windows” should not show (open) apps that do not have a window at all, either visible or hidden. What do you think? :slightly_smiling_face:

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15

true, I have now also hidden these in 5.717!

16

I make heavy use of repeatedly using the trigger key to get to the next item:

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My feature suggestion: move focus to the previous item in the window list when holding SHIFT while pressing the trigger key again.

17

Use the action "Move Selection In Active Window Switcher Up" with your desired trigger.

18

Thanks a lot for this hint, @xidiot

19

I love seeing the preview of selected item, however I have it so I activate the switcher with keypress, and it stays open until I select item. Often I have on hand on the mouse, open the switcher which selects prev window which now has a nice big preview. I find myself all the time clicking in the preview expecting it to focus that window.

This does not work, but just takes me back to current selected window. I just seem to not be able to adapt to this, my brain thinks the window should be focused. Would be great if clicking in the preview popup would actually bring me to that application. :slight_smile:

Otherwise I think I'll eventually have to turn off the preview since I seem to not be able to adapt to how it behaves now. But I really love to see the window preview though... :sweat_smile:

20

Maybe it could work if you create a Trigger for your mouse-click that has the advanced condition "When Window switcher is opened" this trigger should have the action to opens the currently selected window of the window switcher.

I think you would need to duplicate this trigger with the inverted advanced condition to sent the mouse click when the window switcher is not opened.