Window preview applet - switch between app windows without preview

Hello!
Thanks for your great work, guys. I am going to migrate to Budgie from traditional Ubuntu.
Today I experimented with Window Preview applet a bit:

  1. Installed an applet
  2. Activated preview function
  3. Disabled it (unchecked the checkbox)

After that I was able to switch between apps using ALT+TAB and between app windows using ALT+` without generating window previews (it is very slow on my laptop).

Then I reseted all keyboard shortcuts using Settings, rebooted and after reboot I wasn’t able to switch between app windows using ALT+` combination, only ALT+TAB worked. Tried to activate/deactivate preview: with preview enabled I am able to switch between app windows, without - not able to.
Is it a bug? Or this behavior is expected?
If so, how can I disable the previews, but saving the ability to switch between app’s windows?
Thanks!

Not sure if I understand you correctly. In the applet, both switching between all windows (Alt+Tab) and switching between windows of the currently active application (Alt + `) are enabled. Do you mean you only want the latter to be active?

About the speed: could you mention the specs of your laptop?

Thank you for fast reply.
I want to have both: switching between all windows and between app windows, but without the preview generation (I want to have only icons), as long it takes 1-2 seconds delay.
Is it possible?
Yoga 2 Pro with 8Gb DDR and Core i5 4th generation.
Forgot to mention: I have hidpi screen, so may be it is also affects the performance.

I think we also discussed on this applet in a prior thread that it seems slower on Intel GPU’s than decided GPU’s. It’s quick and real time on my desktop with Nvidia, but is sluggish with the integrated Intel chip, even though they’re both nearly equal speed CPU’s…

As I see, this applet is written using Python. I would be grateful if someone points me to the part of the code which should I change to get the desired feature: switch between windows of he currently active application without generating previews.

The applet actually is based on the generation of window preview icons. Surpassing the window previews is not simply done like that. A script to cycle through the windows on current workspace, either all windows or only of the active application, is quite quickly written though if that would help you. Would it? You could then cycle through windows with no visual component at all.

Yes, it would be great if there is a way to have the ability to switch between active application windows.
Thanks!

Hi Mikoff, please look here.

  • Copy the script into an empty file, save it as nopreviews
  • Make it executable
  • Create two shortcuts: /path/to/nopreviews (no args) and /path/to/nopreviews onlythisapp (although any argument works, including /path/to/nopreviews blub)

Now the first shortcut will cycle through all windows, the second one through only windows of the current application.

NB: the script switches between windows on current workspace and on current screen.

Have fun!

Wow! Thank you for such a reactive support.
Everything works like a charm!
But sometimes it fails: for example, if I have two Chromium browsers and terminal, it cycles between them (using key combination to switch windows of the current application) until I switch to terminal, then it stops.

Update: the same happens with gedit (so I suppose it stucks when the application waits for the input). It always switches from Chromium and stucks on next window with input.

Cromium and gedit? Will take a look. Are you sure the window(s) actually has focus? if no (valid) window has focus, it switches to the first window in row.

Ah, ok, found it, stupid mistake. python does not think 0 == True :slight_smile:
WIll fix later today.

Hi Mikoff, fixed. I couldn’t make it fail anymore. Please update the script.

Thanks! Works flawlessly now.