Switching between taskbar tasks sequentially

keyboard shortcutsshortcutstaskbarwindowswindows xp

In Firefox and some other tabbed interfaces, I can use Ctrl-PgUp/Down to cycle through tabs sequentially, based on their order in the tab list. I associate what is what based almost entirely on its position along the tab bar and what is next to what, so this is extremely useful for the way I keep track of things in my head.

However, I haven't been able to find an equivalent for actual taskbar items in Windows, such that with a single shortcut will switch focus to the task item either to the left or the right of the current task in focus. There's a lot of existing shortcuts that I use (Alt-Tab, Ctrl-Esc, and their counterparts), but these use the window manager's stacking order, so it always changes based on what you've switched between in the past, and so their usefulness generally only lies in switching between two apps — above that, I just can't keep that kind of stack in my head.

The closest shortcut I've found is Winlogo-Tab, but it only moves a selector on the taskbar, so you have to hit space after moving it, and it also seems to originate the selector from the leftmost item every time (rather than relative to the current item).

Am I just a weirdo and will have to write my own app to perform these actions?

Best Answer

You can probably get away with an Auto Hot Key Script.

However, I am not an expert... The best I can come up with is...

#Tab Up::Send {Enter}

return

However, this sends the return the moment that Windows Key and Tab is pressed and not when the Windows Key is released. I am not sure of the correct syntax... Hopefully I am along the right lines and someone can come along to fix.

Update

The functionality is included by default in Notepad++ v6.4.5 and later. 6.4.5 was released August 9th 2013. Note the current version is 7.5.8 released July 23rd 2018.

If you are using a version of Notepad++ older than v6.4.5, the rest of this answer still applies.

Natively

You can do this natively in Notepad++, but in order to replicate the behaviour of Firefox, you need to disable the document switcher and MRU behaviour.

Disable MRU functionality

Navigate to Settings > Preferences... > MISC..
- Where it says Document Switcher (Ctrl+TAB) uncheck the first check box Enable.
- Hit the Close button.

Create the Ctrl+PGUP/PGDN shortcuts

Navigate to Settings > Shortcut Mapper....
- Make sure you are on the Main menu tab.
- Scroll to the bottom and you should see in entries 192 Switch to previous document and 193 Switch to next document.
- By default these should be mapped to Ctrl+Shift+Tab and Ctrl+Tab respectively.
- Double click anywhere on the 192 line and change it to Ctrl+Page up.
- Double click anywhere on the 193 line and change it to Ctrl+Page down.
- Hit the Close button.

That's it!

Please note that you will no longer have access to the Ctrl+Tab/Shift+Tab MRU behaviour now. If, like me, you cannot live without this read on.

Another (better) option

Notepad++ defaults to using the back and forward buttons on a mouse to switch to the adjacent left and right tabs, so if you are a fan of AutoHotkey, you can use this little script:

#IfWinActive, ahk_class Notepad++
; Switch to the adjacent tab to the left
^PgUp::
    Send, {XButton1}
    Return
; Switch to the adjacent tab to the right
^PgDn::
    Send, {XButton2}
    Return

This won't interfere with other programs and enables to you have your cake and eat it! You can navigate left and right through adjacent the tabs using Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn and you can still switch to your last used tab using the built-in document switcher functionality using Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab - just like Firefox :)

Windows – Is there a way to create a custom hotkey in Windows that will close the current window or sub-window

In AutoHotkey you can easily remap Ctrl+W per application. For instance in EditPlus Ctrl+F4 closes an MDI window.

#IfWinActive EditPlus - 
^w::Send ^{F4}

If say a menu's Close doesn't have a hotkey, you can use AltFC to open the File menu and use the accelerator.

If that fails you can use ControlClick (e.g. on a toolbar icon).
If that fails you can use PostMessage/SendMessage.

A more advanced script could certainly close the application after its children, if it doesn't already do so.