Taskbar Icons... Last Viewed Window?

[tkneis]

I'm not sure how to word what it is I'm wanting to do...

Does anyone know if Windows has provided a way to cause the taskbar icons to take you back to the last viewed window when you click on the icon instead of having to look through all the previews?

If it's not available, is there some way (like a registry change) to change the behavior of the taskbar icons to accomplish this?

 

[Antman]

Right click the icon. The list presented includes history.

 

[Brink]

Hello Tkneis,

I believe you are referring to Jump Lists as Antman mentioned above. You will need to have Recent Items and Recent Programs turned on to have these entries in the jump lists.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[tkneis]

Good suggestion, but not really at all the answer I'm looking for. I'm aware of jump lists. What I'm wondering about has to do with how Windows treats windows and programs that are already open.

Let's say I've got Outlook open and a bunch of mail messages and maybe an event or two, and let's say all of it has been minimized to the taskbar except for a certain message I'm reading. If I navigate away to any other Window - say a web page for this example - in order for me to navigate back to the message I was just viewing I have to make multiple mouse clicks; I either have to hover my mouse over the Outlook icon and navigate to the message I was just looking at, or I have to minimize the web page. What I wish I could do was just left-click on the Outlook icon and it take me immediately back to the last viewed window out of all my open windows under that icon. But I don't want to lose my ability to hover for previews.

Does that make sense? Again, sorry if I'm making this complicated.

 

[Antman]

Alt+Tab will take you from current focus to first previous focus. Immediately.

 

[tkneis]

Ok... That's helpful too, but still not what I'm looking for.

You know how you can "Control+Click" on an icon and it will automatically bring up the next window out of all your open windows under that icon (and if you keep clicking it, it will take you through all the open windows)? Anyone know how to edit the registry so that "Control+Click" just brings up the last viewed open window under that icon?

Really, the suggestions are very helpful. It may just be that what I'm thinking might not be possible.

 

[MrJukes]

Create HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced!LastActiveClick=1 and restart explorer. This will swap the ctrl+click behavior to be the default.

 

[tkneis]

Perfect! That's it exactly. Thank you!

 

[Antman]

Kudos to MrJuke and tkneis. I learned something today.

CTL+click. Who knew? Not the Antman.