Window Switcher shows "ghost" windows

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
1

Describe the bug
Window Switcher is pretty great, but it has some trouble with programs like QGIS, Dual Commander etc.

Those programs create dialog windows (correctly shown as separate windows in Window Switcher) but when done with those dialog windows (like pressing Ok or Cancel) sometimes they stay in the Window Switcher list as "ghost" windows. It shows them as "hidden" but they cannot be activated.
Even if I restart BTT the "ghost" windows are still listed.
The problem has been with me since forever, it's not a new bug.

Image attached.

Affected input device (e.g. MacBook Trackpad, Magic Mouse/Trackpad, Touch Bar, etc.):
Keyboard invoked Window Switcher

Screenshots

Screenshot 2025-07-20 at 19.13.57
Screenshot 2025-07-20 at 19.13.57794×1656 154 KB

As you can see there is Found files - Finished - ... listed, but this window does not seem to exist anymore.

Device information:

  • Type of Mac: MacbookPro M1 Max 64GB
  • macOS version: Sequoia 13.5
  • BetterTouchTool version: BetterTouchTool 5.468 (is currently the newest version available)

Additional information (e.g. crash logs, related issues, etc.):
No crashes, BTT is rock solid :folded_hands:

2

Seems I was unclear in what the problem is. Let me try again.

Certain programs seem to use non-standard dialog windows. Double Commander and QGIS are two examples that I constantly use.

What happens is that after the dialog window is closed (not visible any more on the screen, not litsted anymore by MacOS built-in window switcher's Application windows) BTT Window Switcher continues to list it as "hidden". It cannot switch to it, but it still lists it.

3

unfortunately I have no idea how to filter these out, these apps seem to always keeps these windows loaded but inaccessible.

4

@Andreas_Hegenberg, as alternative, can you add more filtering options to the Window switcher?
If we could filter by application/window (which is currently available) and also by state (hidden, minimized) it will be pretty easy to solve this?

5

You can do that already:

image
image2314×1608 385 KB

1 Like
6

I've meant, exclude windows with name "XXXX" AND state "Hidden".

I think at the moment I can exclude ALL or NONE hidden windows, which is not what I want.

7

That is true.

It should be possible to add specific excludes, but I don't have an ETA for this. I'll add it to my roadmap.

1 Like
8

Thank you!

9

Actually, on the topic of excludes in Window Switcher, I was thinking that besides hidden/minimized states, also excluding by monitor on which aplication is displayed would be useful. And you already provide this information on the Window-Switcher.
The use case for this is, for example, "hide all other windows on the same monitor".

10

Btw, in the latest versions of Window Switcher, not only it feels very stable, but the problem with ghost windows seems to be sorted out. :trophy:

11

I didn't change anything yet :face_with_peeking_eye: (but I have a few ideas on how to prevent ghost windows from showing up, the main problem is some apps forgetting to clean up their closed windows...)