What is the right way to send Alt + Tab in Ahk?

22

votes

Ok. I know this is a very stupid question. But I'm stuck already for an hour.

I got very little experience with ahk, however I made work every script until now with no problems. I explored the ahk tutorials but found no solution up to now.

I'm trying to switch to prev. app with a single numpad off key. I've tried:

!{Tab}

,

{Alt down}{Tab}{Alt up}

I've tried it with Sleep delays, multiline, multiline inside brackets, with and without commas after commands, etc.

I'm quite sure is very simple but something I've not tried yet.

Any suggestion?

autohotkey

19

votes

$F1:: AltTab()
$F2:: AltTabMenu()

; AltTab-replacement for Windows 8:
AltTab(){
    list := ""
    WinGet, id, list
    Loop, %id%
    {
        this_ID := id%A_Index%
        IfWinActive, ahk_id %this_ID%
            continue    
        WinGetTitle, title, ahk_id %this_ID%
        If (title = "")
            continue
        If (!IsWindow(WinExist("ahk_id" . this_ID))) 
            continue
        WinActivate, ahk_id %this_ID%, ,2
            break
    }
}

; AltTabMenu-replacement for Windows 8:
AltTabMenu(){
    list := ""
    Menu, windows, Add
    Menu, windows, deleteAll
    WinGet, id, list
    Loop, %id%
    {
        this_ID := id%A_Index%
        WinGetTitle, title, ahk_id %this_ID%
        If (title = "")
            continue            
        If (!IsWindow(WinExist("ahk_id" . this_ID))) 
            continue
        Menu, windows, Add, %title%, ActivateTitle      
        WinGet, Path, ProcessPath, ahk_id %this_ID%
        Try 
            Menu, windows, Icon, %title%, %Path%,, 0
        Catch 
            Menu, windows, Icon, %title%, %A_WinDir%\System32\SHELL32.dll, 3, 0 
    }
    CoordMode, Mouse, Screen
    MouseMove, (0.4*A_ScreenWidth), (0.35*A_ScreenHeight)
    CoordMode, Menu, Screen
    Xm := (0.25*A_ScreenWidth)
    Ym := (0.25*A_ScreenHeight)
    Menu, windows, Show, %Xm%, %Ym%
}

ActivateTitle:
    SetTitleMatchMode 3
    WinActivate, %A_ThisMenuItem%
return

;-----------------------------------------------------------------
; Check whether the target window is activation target
;-----------------------------------------------------------------
IsWindow(hWnd){
    WinGet, dwStyle, Style, ahk_id %hWnd%
    if ((dwStyle&0x08000000) || !(dwStyle&0x10000000)) {
        return false
    }
    WinGet, dwExStyle, ExStyle, ahk_id %hWnd%
    if (dwExStyle & 0x00000080) {
        return false
    }
    WinGetClass, szClass, ahk_id %hWnd%
    if (szClass = "TApplication") {
        return false
    }
    return true
}

EDIT (suggested by the user Ooker):

The script pops up a menu for you to choose.

This is what it looks like:

8

votes

If you just want to switch back to the previous application, use Send, !{Esc}

6

votes

You shouldn't manually send alt+tab as it is a special windows command, rather use the AltTab commands that do that for you.

AltTabMenu opens the tab menu and selects the program, whileAltTab, ShiftAltTab navigate through it.

h::AltTabMenu  
n::AltTab
m::ShiftAltTab

4

votes

There are some issues with Windows 8/10 and keys like ctrl-alt-del and alt-tab. Here is one solution:

F1::
  {   
        Send {Alt Down}{Tab} ;Bring up switcher immediately            
        KeyWait, F1, T.5  ; Go to next window; wait .5s before looping
        if (Errorlevel)
       {       
        While ( GetKeyState( "F1","P" ) ) {
            Send {Tab}        
            Sleep, 400 ; wait 400ms before going to next window
        }
    }
        Send {Alt Up} ;Close switcher on hotkey release
}
return

3

votes

Worked for me:

F1::
Send, {ALT DOWN}{TAB}{ALT UP}
return

It simulates the Alt + Tab behavior for F1 key.

2

votes

My personal goal was to remap Alt-Tab to Win-Tab (because I'm using a Mac keyboard on a Windows 10) so I took what Stepan wrote above plus some documentation and here is is, working fine for me :

#Tab::
{   
  Send {LAlt Down}{Tab}          
  KeyWait, LWin  ; Wait to release left Win key
  Send {LAlt Up} ; Close switcher on hotkey release
}
return

1

votes

Well, finally I found the reason and some "solutions" here and here. It seems that Windows 8 blocks Ahk {Alt Down}{Tab} and AltTabMenu and some other keys.

For now I'm using this to scroll windows forward:

Send !{ESC}

This to display the AltTabMenu:

Run, "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Window Switcher.lnk"

And this to switch to the previous app as suggested in one of the topics:

LCtrl & z:: ; AltTabMenu


state := GetKeyState("Capslock", "T")
if state = 1
SetCapsLockState, Off  ; CapsLock On blocks Task Switching metro window

Send, !{Tab}   ; prevents displaying inactive Task Switching metro window
run, Window Switcher.lnk ; must be in script directory otherwise include path 
WinWait, Task Switching,, 2
KeyWait, Ctrl
Send, {Enter}

if state = 1
SetCapsLockState, On  ; restores CapsLock State
state =

return

#IfWinActive, Task Switching
LCtrl & q::Send, {Right}
LCtrl & a::Send, {Left}

It would be great to get to the previous app with no AltTabMenu splashing.

0

votes

In case you want to do multiple "tabs", then the below function should help doing that. This was at least own solution on my Windows 8.1 machine.

The approach is:

1) Get a list of all the windows
2) Loop 1:
- find the index of the current window
- set the index to switch to ("current" + "offset")
3) Loop 2:
- loop until you hit the index to switch to, then switch window

AutoHotKey code sample below:

; Test switch of 1 window
F1::AltTabFunction(offset:=1)

; Test switch of 2 windows
F2::AltTabFunction(offset:=2)

AltTabFunction(offset:=1)
{
    ; ****************************
    ; Function for switching windows by ALT-TAB (offset = number of windows to "tab")
    ; ****************************
    ; Get list of all windows.
    WinGet, AllWinsHwnd, List
    WinGetTitle, active_title, A ; Get title of active window.

    ; Find index of the current window.
    counter_of_none_hidden_windows := 0 ; Initiate counter for counting only the none-hidden windows.
    Loop, % AllWinsHwnd
    {
        ; Find title for window in this loop.
        WinGetTitle, CurrentWinTitle, % "ahk_id " AllWinsHwnd%A_Index%

        ; From [1]: "Retrieves an 8-digit hexadecimal number representing the extended style of a window.".
        ; [1] : https://autohotkey.com/docs/commands/WinGet.htm
        WinGet, exStyle, exStyle, % "ahk_id" AllWinsHwnd%A_Index%

        ; Skip hidden windows by checking exStyle.
        If !(exStyle & 0x100){
            Continue
        }

        ; Window is not hidden. Increase counter.
        counter_of_none_hidden_windows := counter_of_none_hidden_windows+1

        ; Set flag.
        titles_match := CurrentWinTitle = active_title
        If (titles_match) {
            window_index_to_switch_to := counter_of_none_hidden_windows+offset
            break
        }
    }

    ; Find index of the window to switch to and do the actual switch
    counter_of_none_hidden_windows := 0 ; Initiate counter for counting only the none-hidden windows.
    Loop, % AllWinsHwnd
    {
        ; From [1]: "Retrieves an 8-digit hexadecimal number representing the extended style of a window.".
        ; [1] : https://autohotkey.com/docs/commands/WinGet.htm
        WinGet, exStyle, exStyle, % "ahk_id" AllWinsHwnd%A_Index%

        ; Skip hidden windows by checking exStyle.
        If !(exStyle & 0x100){
            Continue
        }

        ; Window is not hidden. Increase counter.
        counter_of_none_hidden_windows := counter_of_none_hidden_windows+1

        ; Set flag.
        found_window_to_switch_to := counter_of_none_hidden_windows = window_index_to_switch_to

        ; Switch window.
        If (found_window_to_switch_to) {
            ; Get title.
            WinGetTitle, CurrentWinTitle, % "ahk_id " AllWinsHwnd%A_Index%
            ; Activate by title.
            WinActivate, %CurrentWinTitle%
            ; Stop loop.
            break
        }
    }
    return ; Nothing to return
}

0

votes

send {Alt down}{tab}
send {Alt up}

0

votes

Please refer to this link: https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Hotkeys.htm#alttab

To cancel the Alt-Tab menu without activating the selected window, press or send Esc. In the following example, you would hold the left Ctrl and press CapsLock to display the menu and advance forward in it. Then you would release the left Ctrl to activate the selected window, or press the mouse wheel to cancel. Define the AltTabWindow window group as shown below before running this example.

LCtrl & CapsLock::AltTab
#IfWinExist ahk_group AltTabWindow  ; Indicates that the alt-tab menu is present on the screen.
MButton::Send {Blind}{Escape}  ; The * prefix allows it to fire whether or not Alt is held down.
#If

-1

votes

!{Tab} works to switch between windows if you add sleep before and after it.

Sleep 100
Send !{Tab}
Sleep 100

-3

votes

I think this question was meant to be a simple request of: how to alt tab in Win10 using AHK, since win10 changed things up? -> I found the most simple solution as shown below... the code makes it necessary to keep the alt key down while the Win10 emu is open - then use the arrow keys an additional number of tabs (if you need three alt tabs, then it's "alt tab, then right 2", see?

macro key name::

{
        Sleep 100
        Send, ^c
        Sleep 1000
        Send, {alt down}{tab}
        Sleep 400
        Send, {right 2}{alt up}
        Sleep 400
        Send, ^v
        Sleep 400
}

So just play with this snip in your code and you can jump passed the 'next' window(s) open. Rossman

What is the right way to send Alt + Tab in Ahk?

12 Answers