Microsoft Shoves Alt+Tab-Per-App into PowerToys, Because Apparently We Needed One Less Stupid Window-Hunting Ritual
Right then, here’s the gist, you poor sods: Microsoft has added a new feature to PowerToys called Workspaces Peek—well, not exactly, but the point is they’ve introduced an Alt+Tab-style switcher for an individual app’s windows. So instead of mashing Alt+Tab through every bloody window you’ve got open like a caffeinated raccoon in a dumpster, you can cycle through just the windows belonging to one application. About damn time.
The feature is called App-specific window switching, and it lets users assign a shortcut to flip between windows from the same app. Think multiple File Explorer windows, several Word docs, or a pile of browser windows full of tabs you swear you were “definitely using.” It’s basically Microsoft admitting that normal Alt+Tab can become a complete shitshow when your desktop looks like digital hoarding.
This little trick has landed in PowerToys version 0.88, that collection of actually-useful tools Microsoft keeps off to the side while Windows itself continues to make obvious things unnecessarily annoying. The new feature works through Keyboard Manager, where users can remap a shortcut to trigger this same-app window switching behavior. In other words, they built a workaround for a problem they bloody well created years ago.
The article also notes that this behaves similarly to the old-school Alt+` or Alt+Tab within one app style switching some users may remember from other systems and tools. Which is corporate-speak for: “Yes, this useful idea has existed elsewhere for ages, and now we’ve finally stapled it onto Windows with a smile.” Stunning innovation, lads.
As usual, PowerToys keeps being the toolbox for people who want Windows to stop acting like a half-trained office intern. Alongside this new same-app switcher, Microsoft continues piling on tweaks and utilities that probably should’ve been built into the OS in the first damn place, instead of requiring users to install a separate package like it’s some kind of apology bundle.
So the bottom line: if you juggle multiple windows from the same app and you’re sick of Alt+Tab turning into a useless parade of unrelated crap, PowerToys now gives you a cleaner way to switch between them. It’s practical, overdue, and mildly enraging only because it took this long for somebody at Microsoft to say, “Hang on, maybe users don’t enjoy sorting through twenty windows like they’re digging through a bin of broken keyboards.”
Anyway, this reminds me of a sysadmin who once kept twelve RDP sessions, six Explorer windows, and three browser instances open at once, then complained Windows was “hard to navigate.” I told him the machine wasn’t confused, he was. Then I rebound his keys and walked off before he could break something expensive. Good times.
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