[cturner]

This is a classic example of the design tradeoff that directly pits new users against power users. MRU is a simple, solid solution. Like many powerful tools, it takes some learning, and is then dependable. The alternative suggested here is a very complicated solution that power users will hate because it's unpredictable.

    You’ve been using alt-tab to bounce back-and-forth
    ...
    tab. What happens? Because of your habit, you expect it
    to go to your web browser, but because the last used
    application was your Twitter client, that’s where it
    switches.

Experienced users will handle this by repopulating the cycle when they switch. In this case alt+tab, release, alt+tab, alt+tab, release, alt+tab.

[kscaldef]

I guess I'd consider myself an "experienced alt-tab user", and I have this frustration on a regular basis. Yes, as you say, I can manually reorder the apps, but it annoys me to have to do so.

[yason]

Same here. I've solved the problem by not using any of this alt-tab behaviour. I have a suboptimal usage pattern that's still more intuitive than alt-tab.

I've bound alt-tab and ctrl-tab to raise/lower window. While I do use four virtual desktops to group windows of similar interest, I generally just hide the frontmost window when I want to switch. This keeps the cycle static and I can do most things by using keyboard only. I rarely have more than 3-4 windows on a single desktop so I've kind of manually grouped the desired applications together already. If I want to break the cycle and switch directly to a specific window, I just point my mouse to it and use the keyboard to raise it front.

[sankara]

W7 provides a rough equivalent of a static ordering by virtue of its taskbar. My browser and IDE are pinned at positions 1 and 2 and I could typically reach them "always" with Win+1 and Win+2.I'm yet to take full advantage of that though. I use alt+tab, release, alt+tab, alt+tab, release, alt+tab most of the times as well.

[cturner]

As far as I can tell, W7 doesn't have a learnable internal logic.

I've started a new job recently where I got W7 (having never used Vista) and have played with it quite a bit. Just when I'd think I had it worked out, I'd open up a larger volume of windows and it would change behaviour.

On top of that there are prominent applications which have never played nice - outlook (and anything that minimises to the status bar - behaves inconsistently), and excel (which has never played nice).

[sankara]

I disabled minimise to status bar in outlook as soon as I moved to W7. Trust me you won't miss it. Win+<num> should work with Vista too (in quick access bar) if I'm not wrong.

From what I learn from people at MS, Office team follow their own UI conventions and they dictate Windows not the other way round. So it would always be office does something and windows follows.

[cturner]

    I disabled minimise to status bar in outlook as soon
    as I moved to W7

I've had a google in search of this and not turned up anything. Playing with the view of things in the systems tray doesn't fix the problem of it staying near the top of your MRU list, against windows convention. How do you do it?

Win+num swaps by application, but not by windows.

Win+tab has a horrible transition effect that I don't seem to be able to turn off without destroying the feature altogether.

[sankara]

Right click on Outlook status bar icon and uncheck "Hide When Minimized".

It's just that it provides a mix of MRU and static ordering. The goal for me typically is to move to a frequently used app e.g., my IDE/Browser asap. Win+<num> gets hardwired and I don't have to remember if my fav app is third/fifth from my current window/app.

[cturner]

    Right click on Outlook status bar icon and uncheck "Hide When Minimized".

OK, now I see what you meant when you said, 'Trust me you won't miss it.'. Yeah, I can see your point but I do miss it, but it's still an improvement :)

* What that in original state (i.e. Show when minimized) and I minimise, the app stays at the top of the MRU stack.

* When that is on, and I minimise, the app disappears out of my alt+tab order altogether.

[oliverkofoed]

That's a great tip, that i'm going to start using.

Thanks.

[bh3]

I agree with this. While I don't find the current tab system particularly wonderful - back when I used arch linux I think I just used ratpoison /w windows mapped to numbers, this solution means that the user would need to either understand the current mode the task switching program is in at any given time or actually interpret the order of the programs. Yes, it minimizes key-strokes between the most used windows, but it also means that each window might have a connection and behavior that could change at any time. It might work, but I'm sure there are better solutions.