Defining keyboard shortcuts for different open application windows

[erasmose]

Hello,

This is my first post here.
Question is: How can I define keyboard shortcuts for different open application windows. This is something I do in Linux and it helps a lot when I have many windows open.
Example: I have Internet explorer open, I give it shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A
Then for example VLC player is open, I give it a Ctrl+shift+B

Then I can just press these keys and go from one window to another. This makes a lot of sense when I have 40 windows open. Pressing Alt+tab is not as efficient as this.

Thanks,
Sep

 

[Sub Styler]

[Alt]+[TAB] might not be as effective with that many windows open, but I prefer [Win]+[TAB] as you then get a visual.

Would you method work if for example there were 3 MS word windows, 4 Firefox windows, a regedit window, a res hacker window and 8 windows explorer windows? How would it know which of the 4 firefox windows you wanted?


*the win key being the one with the windows logo on it

 

[erasmose]

Yeah i sometimes use the win+tab too.
Basically you define shortcuts for different windows. So 2 different windows of the same application can have 2 shortcuts. So it is only valid as long as you keep the window open.
Example: One IE window can have its shortcut. And another IE window must have a different shortcut or no shortcut.

 

[erasmose]

Ok if it is confusing, I'm gonna write down how I do it in Linux:
Right click on a window, go to advanced options, define shortcut. It doesn't matter how many other instances of application are open. That's a shortcut just for that window. Once you close the window, shortcut is gone. It is not permenant.

 

[Sub Styler]

No it's not confusing but AFAIK it's not possible in windows, TBH I dont think many people can be bothered assigning keyboard shortcuts to windows that are just gonna be lost every time they restart or crash.

 

[MilesAhead]

Ok if it is confusing, I'm gonna write down how I do it in Linux:
Right click on a window, go to advanced options, define shortcut. It doesn't matter how many other instances of application are open. That's a shortcut just for that window. Once you close the window, shortcut is gone. It is not permenant.

You could hack together your own application to sit in the system tray using AutoIt3

If you have more than one window with the exact caption it will use the last found. Linux probably uses a unique id for the window. Then again you could write your code to get the window handle. It would take a little bit of trial and error but AutoIt3 syntax is very like Basic. It's easy to learn. The software tools are free.

 

[erasmose]

Thanks guys. I guess I'm not gonna go learn a new programming language for this... but thanks for the info.

It is actually very useful. And I have some windows that are open for the whole week. So the shortcut stays.

 

[MilesAhead]

I did a cursory search but I didn't find a Linux window manager for Windows. You would think there'd be some but maybe it's too involved with all the Explorer shell quirks.

There are a bunch of free window placement/manipulation programs around. You might look on the big download sites like download.com, softpedia, sourceforge.net and see if there's something close to what you want. There should be something that allows you to associate a hotkey with the active window and at least move it to the top of the pile when you hit the key. It's been a long time since I did Linux. I vaguely recall something like what you are talking about. Seems too the command shell windows are much more advanced than for Windows. All the custom ones I've tried for Windows that stick a Gui on top of the command prompt either crash or Aero goes away when you click 'em.

 

[debugged]

The built-in shortcuts Win + 1 (2, 3, etc.) are similar to what you want - where 1 is the first tab in the taskbar, 2 is the second, and so on. Especially if you have various applications open for a long time, it might be useful to you.

 

[erasmose]

Cool!
I didn't know about the win+number