You have a dozen windows open, you’re deep in a workflow, and you hit Alt+Tab to switch to the right one. What you get is a cramped row of thumbnail previews — too small to read, too cluttered to parse — and you end up tabbing past the window you wanted, then back, then past it again. It’s not a big deal, but it adds up over an eight-hour day. Microsoft has had years to overhaul this interaction, and the result is still… thumbnails in a row.
Alt-Tab Terminator, a small Windows app from NTWind Software, takes that frustration away. It doesn’t just tweak the Alt + Tab dialog; it replaces it entirely with a full-featured switching panel that actually makes sense. It’s one of those productivity tools that should go on every PC.
- OS
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Windows
- Price model
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Free (pro version available)
Upgrade Windows task switching with Alt-Tab Terminator. Get a powerful visual preview, advanced window management, and faster control over open apps.
Alt-Tab Terminator turns a frustrating key combo into a useful task-switching command center
It knows which window you meant
When you install Alt-Tab Terminator and press Alt + Tab for the first time, instead of the usual strip of squinting thumbnails, you get a clean, vertically organized task list on the left with each item labeled with a large icon and the full window title and a live desktop preview of whatever you’re hovering over on the right. You can actually see the content of the window before you switch to it, even if that app has several child windows open simultaneously.
To enhance its practicality, the search bar sits at the top of the panel. The moment you start typing, the task list filters in real time by window title or application name. If you have eight Visual Studio windows and a handful of browser tabs open, typing “altTab” or “Chrome” narrows things down to exactly what you’re after in under a second. This level of control is particularly useful if you find that the standard Alt-Tab keyboard shortcut isn’t working as expected, or if it feels too limited for heavy multitasking.
Navigating within the panel is just as intuitive. You can use the arrow keys, Tab, Home, and End, or hover with the mouse — the selection follows your cursor without clicking. The mouse wheel works too. Once you land on the right window, releasing Alt switches to it automatically, mimicking the behavior of the original shortcut but with far more precision.
These obscure keyboard shortcuts make navigating Windows absurdly fast
Ditch the mouse and let your fingers do the heavy lifting.
Below the live preview, the App Cloud section lists all your running applications. Clicking any application name instantly filters the task list to show only that app’s windows. This is handy when you’re running multiple instances of a browser or IDE. Window management is built directly into the switcher, too. Right-clicking any item in the task list opens a context menu with options to close, minimize, maximize, restore, run a new instance, or terminate the process. Every one of those actions also has a dedicated function key shortcut: F4 closes, F5 minimizes, F6 maximizes, and so on. Pressing F4 several times in a row lets you close windows one after another without ever activating them. This is something the built-in Alt+Tab can’t touch.
The switcher automatically follows Windows 11 theming conventions, switching between Light, Dark, and High-Contrast modes based on your system settings. It also works with both Alt + Tab and Win + Tab, which you can configure independently of the Settings panel. And if you’d rather see everything at once, pressing F11 or clicking the bottom-left expand icon expands the switcher to full screen. This is good when you’re trying to get a clear view of a long list of open tasks.
The free version covers all of this without ads, nag screens, or trial timers.
The Pro version goes further with multi-monitor flexibility and customization options
A lifetime license that earns its keep
If the free version is a well-equipped sedan, the Pro upgrade, currently priced at $19.95 for a lifetime license, is the same car with a few thoughtful modifications that power users will appreciate.
Multi-monitor support is the standout addition. In the Pro version, you can configure Alt-Tab Terminator to appear on the monitor where your cursor is currently located, rather than always defaulting to the primary display. While you can set up and use multiple monitors in native settings, this tool adds a “Current Monitor” filter in the App Cloud so you can limit the task list to only the windows on your active screen. It’s a big workflow improver when you’re running a dual or triple-monitor setup and don’t want to wade through tasks from other displays.
The Exclusions tab lets you hide specific applications from appearing in the switcher at all, and it is useful for background utilities or system processes you never actually want to switch to. Custom hotkeys add another two assignable shortcuts each for switching between all windows, switching between windows of the active application, and switching between windows on the current monitor.
The appearance options go deeper too: you can toggle the preview panel and App Cloud on or off, enable background blur, display task numbers alongside each entry, move the task list to the right side of the panel, or adjust the overall size from Small to Large. A “Try Pro Style” button in the settings dialog lets you preview the numbered-list layout before committing.
Free to try, hard to uninstall
Whether the Pro upgrade is worth it depends on how you work. If you use a single monitor and have straightforward workflows, the free version really covers most of the ground. But if you regularly juggle multiple displays or want to fine-tune exactly what the switcher shows and how it behaves, the Pro additions are well-targeted and priced fairly for a lifetime license.
Either way, the base product alone is enough to make you wonder why Windows ships with anything less.
