Hi all,

I've seen several posts asking to have ALT-Tab function differently per monitor you're working on (based on mouse cursor location I guess) however I honestly suspect as a core Windows functionality, this is unlikely.

However,... I would suspect perhaps at least the ALT-TAB box which pops up might be able to be replicated to all 3 monitors (or more / less) at least. Not that I can program but I suspect this might be easier to do without breaking Windows.
Any thoughts to having it appear on multiple monitors?

This is a feature I'd be interested in as well. It would definitely have to be controlled by settings. I would suggest these options (if possible):

On both/all monitors
On specific monitor (#1/2/3 etc.)
On monitor with mouse cursor
On monitor with program that has focus

I would likely go with the last option, since that's where my eyes are most likelly to be pointed, but both monitors would also be acceptable.

For extra credit, the specific monitor(s) option could be check boxes and the alt-tab icons would show up on all checked monitors, but I doubt anyone really needs that and it's probably rather difficult/inefficient.

Don't know why but this is "re-bugging" me again today, really working on monitor #1 (left) of 3 and no alt tab slays me!

I hate to sound like a jerk but... I downloaded DF when I got a second monitor so I could put half of a photo of my kids on each monitor, with a suitable amount cropped out of the middle for the gap. Then I started playing with it and found I kinda like the screensaver feature -- I've got it displaying pictures (again minding the gap) which is kinda cool.

Now, however, as I near the end of the trial period, I have to decide whether or not to purchase the pro version or revert to the free, basic one. I'm finding that the alt-tab issue is a challenge for me and I think that if I knew it was something that was in the works for the near future, I'd go ahead and upgrade; otherwise, I think I'll stick with the basic version.

So, I'm not asking for a date or anything, just an idea of whether the alt-tab control feature is in the queue for asap or is in the "yeah, yeah, we'll get to it someday" pile?

Thanks!

I purchased a copy, I can't recall why but it was worth it, vastly superior to ultramon (which surprised me)
The alt tab thing will be definitely appreciated, the hard work is appreciated though, seems to be constantly being worked on. I do hope you're seeing sales to support so much dev work.

Thanks.

I have no idea why the forums renamed me to S(37)
Anyhow, it looks like the ALT tab handler can be done by display fusion now - is this the prelim work on getting it on multiple monitors? (I can't figure out how to do it - but I did switch to the display fusion one)

Thanks all.

Is there any way to simply measure the size of the window being drawn on monitor one and re-painting it, or is that too difficult?
The new one seems a tag laggy, I'll keep updating over the coming week or two while I get used to it.

Definitely seems to be a bit laggy, see attached picture - that many apps took (literally) 2 seconds from holding alt and pressing tab to appear.

I don't mean to be a whiner or hassler but I'm curious if I can propose some other ideas, which you've probably thought of - but since I'm not a coder, worth suggesting.

Is it possible instead of coding your own alt-tab replacement to simply have the program listen for ALT-TAB and when it detects it just copy alt-tab the frame to monitors 2 / 3 / 4? rather than writing your own full one, this will keep the speed up with the regular windows tool.

Hi all,

Sorry to hassle you all but I'm definitely convinced the ALT-Tab functionality built into DF isn't going to cut it for power users, the lag built in to it is really quite painful even on a beef PC.
The lag is quite distinct and has caused me a few slip ups when working on the PC, admitedly I'm only one test user but I definitely would class myself in the power user level and considering DF is really a power user application,... well.

Just an FYI - happy to do other testing for you and offer suggestions but for the sake of time saving, unless that speed can be brought back to Windows level performance I'd recommend abandoning the current implimentation.

I was giving it a try and the lag wasn't terrible. What made me stop using it was that the sorting wasn't in MRU order like the native Alt+Tab switcher. So when I would expect Alt+Tab to take me to the first item in the list, my active application, it actually took me to the 5th.

But I can see some potential here, and will definitely use it full-time to test it out (it is beta software, after all) once the MRU order is implemented.

The lag really needs to be identical to Windows - high end users who manipulate apps very rapidly will be completely thrown out by the feature if they hit alt tab but the OS doesn't recognise it.
(Early versions of Windows Vista on a mid range PC with the full graphical options on, if I recall had this issue - it was nightmarishly annoying for pro users)

I'm skeptical the feature can work properly but we'll see.
Also - try with 30 or 40 things open and it'll lag up for sure :/

What's the ETA on getting alt-tab window to show up on different monitors?

As you can see from my post above, they were nice enough to add it but unfortunatlely the performance is,...... not good. Not their fault, I speculate this is just due to how Windows is.

Unless the behaviour is identical to current alt tab (less than 1/10'th of a second before it appears) it's no good (for me anyhow)

Just tried it: Disclaimer, love the program, paying customer, happy with support.

It was my idea and I appreciate them adding it - but yeah, completely unusable for advanced users.
I snap alt tab incredibly quickly. Very very very quickly - the behaviour isn't identical to windows standard- huge lag (I think the entire approach needs a re-write personally, or scrapping)

It was a nice idea and I hope others enjoy it - but yeah, no good.

Based on others' comments, I suspect I won't enjoy the multi-monitor Alt-tab functionality, but I would like to try it out... only I can't for the life of me figure out how to turn it on. Is it only in the beta versions or something? I'm running 5.1.1. Thanks!

Speed is great for me in 5.1.1. There is no lag. I'm not sure how you guys plan on doing this feature, but while having alt+tab on every monitor is great, I hope you can also enable to only cycle the active applications on that monitor. Hopefully you already had taken that into consideration. Looking forward to the release of this feature.

Keith,

Thanks again for the work on this but I can confirm this is most definitely sitll performing as I reported.
Sorry 127.0.0.1 but you must use alt-tab differently to me at least and I'd speculate most hardcore users.

Under Windows (_all versions_) I can hold down ALT and tap TAB and it responds instantaneously, sub millisecond range.
If you're snappy on the keyboard you could alt tab, back and forth between the same application 5+ times a second. The box with the list of active applications appears instantaneously.
This is not the case for display fusion, however I get it's probably really hard to do.

How differently do you want me to use alt+tab? It's a question of lag and there isn't any on my side.

Define "no lag" because I've tried it on 3 machines an I can assure you, there's lag.

No lag as in, as fast as I can mash on my keys manually. The cycling is fine also. I took a quick vid with my phone. If you turn the volume up or have headphones, you can see that the actions are in sync with the sound of the keys.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4e6tTqumjknc3lRb2Z0TFE1eUk

Mine performs much the same, the problem is the 250+ms lag for the box opening at first press of ALT-TAB in the first place, this should be sub 20ms, completely undetectable to the user /like the existing solution from Microsoft/

I'd record a video but I'm having a busy day at work, sorry.
The initial lag is vastly vastly slower to open than stock Windows ALT-TAB and therefore a very very quick snap of alt tab between apps is painful. (and infact doesn't work, frequently)

I have the displayfusion Alt tab handler enabled (in beta 6 v 2) but it's only showing up on my 'main' monitor, same as the default windows handler. Am I missing something?
No lag, by the way.

Hi Keith,
I'm not sure I was clear -- the alt-tab handler isn't appearing on all monitors, it's only appearing on one (the same one that the default windows handler uses). I'd like to have it appear on all of them. Is that feature already implemented?

Sorry the lag, nope :/

So, I've been using displayfusion for so long it tend to forget what else i use with my system.

I tried the alt+tab handler for apparently the first time today, before i was using vistaswitcher (works great).

The problem i'm seeing seems to be what others are seeing, however i hope this is not the case. The window won't display for 2 seconds. Until then the focus is lost on the active window and nothing happens. So 2 critical questions for me.

1 - Is this common or just my system?
2 - If my system how can i fix it to restore functionality?

I believe i will go back to using vistaswitcher for alt-tab and displayfusion for everything else until i figure out how to resolve this because this delay makes this feature completely unusable.

@Keith, It is definitely quicker with a fresh reboot and nothing to switch between. 2 explorer windows had a minimal lag (barely noticeable compared to the normal function). However any usage of the processor drastically changed the feature.

Might be of note that opening the 'settings' window of displayfusion has always taking quite a long time, 10second duration. Has always been that way.

The alt-tab feature is necessary for a multi-use system, it should be reliable even with multiple operations happening - similar to the original function.

If this is unique to my system can you suggest a remedy or fix that can be done? I've used Vistaswitcher for years and i won't be switching unless the functionality is at least comparable.

Changed to high priority and it is still operating at around a 2 second delay. This is with multiple programs and normal use, nothing extensive is actively running. If i turn off DF alt-tab feature and use the normal or the other alt-tab tool it works without delay.

Changed to high priority and restarted DF, also tried the whole sequence again just to cover my basis.

See attached for the log. 10:10 & 10:11 there were approximately 4 alt-tab performed. Also of note, if the delay lasts longer than approx 2 sec, it won't actually switch to the other window.

That does seem to fix the bulk of the issue - switching to an Aero Theme. There is still a noticeable delay during high process/disk usage, but otherwise its much quicker - if not the same its close to normal usage.

I won't be staying with this theme however, it is much less desirable and reduces my ease of use. If there is another way to utilize this feature of DF without having an Aero theme please let me know.

Thanks for looking into this, i look forward to an update to resolve this for classic themes. If you need more logs or any other information please let me know.