Windows 10, the hidden tool to manage open windows

With Window Walker you can switch from one window to another or from one tab to another on Windows 10, here's how to do it.

Whether we use Windows 10 for work, or if we use it just for fun or to play, very often we find ourselves with lots of open apps and lots of tabs in the browser. In these cases, finding the window we need can be a challenge.

Normally, users use the Alt+Tab key combination to scroll through their open windows and find the app they need, but this method has two major limitations: it wastes a lot of time if there are a lot of apps open and it doesn't allow us to jump from one tab to another in the browser (we can only switch to the browser, then we have to find the tab we need). To solve both of these problems, Microsoft created the Window Walker tool and included it in PowerToys, the advanced tools for experts that, to tell the truth, are very useful for ordinary users as well.

How Window Walker works

Window Walker is not for jumping from one app to another, but from one process to another. That's why you can also use it to switch tabs in your browser: most modern browsers, in fact, open every single tab in a new process. With Window Walker, therefore, we can jump directly to that tab, but how? Through a text box.

After installing Window Walker, all you have to do is activate it in the general PowerToys menu and then use the key combination Ctrl+Win. A small window will open in the middle of the screen where we can enter the name (or part of it) of the process or application we are looking for. If we are working on Word and we want to switch on the fly to the Libero Technology tab open in Chrome, then, we just need to launch Window Walker and type "free": we will see a string indicating that there is a "Free" tab within Chrome.exe. At this point we'll just click on it.

How to install Windows Walker

To use Windows Walker we must first install the PowerToys: we can find them on GitHub, at this page. At this point we have to open the PowerToys app and go to the general settings. Here we'll find the Window Walker toggle to activate. At this point all we have to do is close the window and start using the Ctrl+Win key combination to launch Window Walker.