Highlight window position with Alt-tab window switching (GNOME shell)

Question

When I switch windows in GNOME shell with Alt-tab, I find it really hard to distinguish between windows just from the little preview thumbnails.

Back in the old days, metacity (and Compiz, iirc) would draw a border or otherwise indicate the screen position of the window you were switching to. Even better would be highlighting the window in some way. Is there a way to do this with GNOME Shell?

I'm on Ubuntu 18.04, GNOME Shell 3.28.

(Related, but I'm just hoping for an outline or highlight, not necessarily a window preview: Is there a window switcher for GNOME that shows the actual window?)

Do you mean something like Alt+Esc? Switch windows directly. — Pablo Bianchi, Aug 30 '19 at 16:12
Oh, I hadn't discovered that! That's way better, but my ideal would be to combine both of them. It's nice to see the tabbing order at the same time. — Steven Bell, Aug 30 '19 at 16:36
Do you mean something like [Alt + `](https://askubuntu.com/a/908793/349837) for current application windows, or like this with all windows, using Alt+Tab? — Pablo Bianchi, Sep 01 '19 at 00:20
I prefer the AlternateTab behavior, where Alt+Tab switches between all windows on the current workspace. Although it seems like highlighting the window should work with either behavior. — Steven Bell, Sep 01 '19 at 19:28

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 06 '22 at 10:50

5

The AATWS - Advanced Alt-Tab Window Switcher Gnome Extension does what you're asking I think. You can change the setting “Show Selected Window” to “Show Preview” and then as you cycle through windows with Alt-Tab, the current window is raised and a prominent border is added to the window so you can easily identify it.

answered Apr 06 '22 at 10:50

Peter V. Mørch

5,417

Ooh, this looks excellent, thanks! I'll give it a try as soon as I update to 22.04. – Steven Bell Apr 13 '22 at 19:22

Highlight window position with Alt-tab window switching (GNOME shell)

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