Make switching apps (Cmd-Tab) skip hidden apps?

Prior to using Mac OS X 10.8, I used 10.6.8. In that version of the OS, and probably all the previous ones, I was used to hidden apps being moved to the right end of the apps list used by Cmd-Tab when switching from one app to another. When hidden apps were moved to the end, they were less likely to be selected and unhidden. It also meant that after an app was hidden and moved to the end of the list, a simple press of Cmd-Tab to switch to the previous app would not select the hidden one (unless it was one of only two apps running).
However, in 10.8, hidden apps aren't shifted to the end of the list. Therefore, hiding an app, followed by a simple press of Cmd-Tab will make the just-hidden app reappear, even if there are several apps running.
Is there some way to get the Mac OS X 10.6 functionality back that moves hidden apps to the end of the list?
That is, if the apps list currently contains:
A B C D
"A" is the current app. If I hide that app, "B" becomes active and "A" should move to the end of the list:
B C D A
While app "B" is active, pressing Cmd-Tab will switch to app "C".

Please bring this functionality back! If I hide an app it's because I want to completely remove it from thought and view. I would close instead if I didn't want to receive notifications from it or for it to continue playing music, etc. I can't tell you how many times I've hidden an app just to accidentally cmd+tab back to it a minute later. The same goes for minimized apps when all windows are minimized. If there are no windows to cmd+tab to it should go to the end of the list.

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How to change Window Switching from "cmd + tab" to "ctrl + tab"

Hi,
is there a way to switch windows as described in the topic?
Kind regards,
Michael

Thx for the reply.
Thats what I feared... (I have to work with windows at work and get confused with the differen shortcuts all the time )

Cmd-TAB is not working in 10.9

Hi,
since Mavericks the application switcher is not working correct. When I switch to an other application using cmd-TAB the menue of the other application is shown, but no windows of this application will be shown. In older versions of OS X the app switching via cmd-TAB was no problem.
Is ist possible to bring back the old behavior of the shortcut cmd-TAB?
Gerhard

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Here's a summary of what you need to do: Copy a line of text from this web page into the window of another application. Wait for the script to run. It usually takes a couple of minutes. Then paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page. The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. Details follow.
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6. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in your browser, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin; clear; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s:\n\n%s\n'; Fr='\nRAM details:\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='user %s%%, system %s%%'; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ a -eq 0 ]]; }; M () { find -L "$d" -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | egrep -q XML\|exec && echo $f; done; }; Pc () { o=`grep -v '^ *#' "$2"`; Pm "$1"; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=`sed '/^ *$/d; s/^ */ /' <<< "$o"` && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pp () { o=`$PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'`; Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o=`echo $o`; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; R () { o=; [[ r -eq 0 ]]; }; SP () { system_profiler SP${1}DataType; }; id | grep -qw '80(admin)'; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! 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Spaces / Firefox / CMD Tab

Hi @Apple
1) Even if i switch with CMD-Tab to Terminal in Spaces 1 and then back to Firefox, i had to click into Firefox, because it's not active.
2) If i have more terminal windows open and switched back to terminal in antother Spaces Window the last active terminal is now in background and another one has the focus.
3) Whish: Could you please give me the ability to change the effect when i switched between spaces. I whish the cube effect. It's so cool....

I am also experiencing all these problems. 10.5 has some great features which I am really enjoying using, but I have to say I'm a little disappointed in Apple for releasing the system at this stage, it really is below the grade.
Command-tab will often switch me to the other app, but will not change from the current space to the space the app is in, let alone set the correct window focus. This is happening with many Leopard apps too, mail,, safari finder, not just third party.
Can't wait for 10.5.1, let's hope it fixes many of the bugs.

Why is the CMD-TAB app switcher still unable to properly focus apps?

On my MacBook Pro running OSX Lion 10.7.5, and on previous versions of OSX, I've noticed a very strange defect in the way the graphical environment switches applications.
To reproduce the problem, I open three apps (it does not seem to matter what apps are opened). At least two of the apps are on the same mission control (previously space) desktop so that they overlap. When I use CMD-TAB to switch between the same two apps on different miss.ctl. desktops, very often, as in, about every other switch, the app I'm switching to is underneath another application's window. It fails to rise to the top of the stack.
It is not regular. That is, sometimes the switched-to window does rise to the top. About half the time, it does not. This makes the app switcher a capricious interruption when I'm programming. I used to use spaces 2D spacial layout to spread out my windows and avoid the buggy behavior, but Apple jettisoned that with Lion.
I don't know if this is a problem with OSX's GUI, the libraries, or with the way developers write applications, but it has been a long standing issue. Has anyone else experienced this? It seems like it should have been fixed by now.
Anyone have any clues or fixes ?

Never mind. Apparently a duplicate of other threads. Possible fix: update the defective OSX Lion to Mountain Lion.

Switching Apps with Cmd+Tab

When you switch to an application using the built-in switcher, nothing happens if you had closed or minimized the last open window. When you switch to an application using the Dock, on the other hand, if there are no documents or windows open in that application, a new one is opened automatically.
Well, thats really annoying. If I switch to an app, I'd ofcourse want to use it. Is there any hack for it so that the last open window shows up when I switch apps?
Thanks

Or press the Option key(Alt) on the selected app while Cmd +Tabbing and then you'll reopen closed or minimized windows.
It should do this by default imo this is just giving the user more keys to press thus more work.

CMD Tab not switching to apps in different Spaces

This has been a problem in the past and looks like it's still lingering in Mavericks. Yes I do have the Preferences option set btw
I think it seems to be triggered for me when disconnecting my external monitor (connected via Thunderolt aka MiniDisplayPort to DisplayPort cable). So once I'm using the laptop screen only then CMD+Tab doesn't switch to the correct Space. Not sure if it's when I disconnect when my MBP is sleeping or awake, something else I can test I guess..
Anyone else still getting this, and in the same situation re ext screen?
killall Dock makes it work again though.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to do that, or at least in my testing I can't make that happen.

App switching (cmd-tab) and Expose stop working

This has happened to me several times in the last couple of days: Suddenly the cmd-tab command for switching applications stops working, as well as my active corners for Expose. No matter if I use the laptop's keyboard or an external one. After a restart everything works again. Any ideas?

I'm having the exact same problem. I think it may be somehow tied to the new update of itunes (9.0.1) because when I try to cmd+tab after open itunes it activates tabbing within the itunes fields.

CMD+Tab between apps does not bring fullscreen window into focus.

I just upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard and now I can't tab between fullscreen apps and regular screened apps.
Let me clarify then that my Cmd-Tab function itself still works (the toolbar for whatever application I switch to appears at the top) but the window itself does not slide back into view (fullscreen apps).
I can tab from fullscreen apps TO regular screen apps and the regular screen (and application) slides into view. But when I tab back into a fullscreen app, only the toolbar changes. The screen itself does NOT slide back into view.
Another noteworthy observation is that I CAN tab between two fullscreen applications. The toolbar and window both slide into view like normal.
So the problem ONLY presents itself when I try to switch from regular screen to fullscreen apps. I already restarted numerous times and also repaired disk permissions twice.
I'm running ML 10.8.2 on a Mid 2010 15" Macbook Pro (2.66 GHz i7 with 4GB RAM).

By the way, this interacts with the "order front" bug described here in a nasty way. Fortunately, suggest it is fixed in Mountain Lion.

HT201299 Is there an App which switches on Cellular data at a Particular time of day and switches off as well? if not someone should make an app

Is there an App which switches on Cellular data at a Particular time of day and switches off as well? if not someone should make an app for that

No, there are no apps that can do that, as no app would have access to the necessary API's to perform such a task.

CMD Tab feature no longer takes me to the selected app.

The CMD Tab feature no longer takes me to the selected app. Additionally I have to double click many apps in the Dock to gain access. Anyone have a solution for this?
I have installed a clean Mt Lion system in th ehope that it would fix this but no luck.

tinafromwest lafayette wrote:
but when I use the down arrow key to "launch" the app back open; I get a small icon at the bottom just above the dock.
Don't use the down arrow key. Simply release the Command and Tab keys once the application you want is highlighted. This will open the application in a normal view.
By pressing the down arrow key you are invoking the view all open windows for an application. This is the same outcome as using Control and down arrow for an application that has multiple windows open.

Applescript say app names during Cmd + Tab

I'm writing a script for a speakable item that will let me switch applications without having to touch the computer, by invoking the Cmd+Tab functionality. So far, I have the following:
tell application "System Events"
     key down command
     key code 48
end tell
tell application "SpeechRecognitionServer"
     set userinput to listen for {"left", "right", "select", "cancel"}
     if userinput = "left" then
          tell application "System Events"
               key code 123
          end tell
     else if userinput = "right" then
          tell application "System Events"
               key code 124
          end tell
     else if userinput = "select" then
          tell application "System Events"
               key up command
          end tell
     else if userinput = "cancel" then
          tell application "System Events"
               key code 53
          end tell
     end if
end tell
This code basically presses Command and taps Tab while keeping Command pressed, thus prompting the handy little window of what applications are open to pop up. I can then navigate (albeit slowly) using the 'left' and 'right' commands, and settle on a choice by saying 'select'; alternatively, I can cancel the process with the command 'cancel'.
However, this requires me to be present at the computer, or at least keep an eye on the screen, so that I know what application is currently selected. This defeats one of the two main reasons for having voice commands activated. These two reasons are 1) I am at my computer but my hands are busy, and 2) I am away from my computer. Forcing me to be present in order to switch applications clearly runs contrary to the second reason; in all the other speakable items I've created, I've worked in some sort of verbal feedback that lets me know what's going on so that I can operate my computer from across the room.
Thus, my question: is there a way to have AppleScript tell me what application is currently selected? I'm kind of new at AppleScript, and in any case I feel like the answer to this couldn't be found in the few areas I'm already familiar with (I mean, the little Cmd+Tab window isn't exactly an application, so I doubt I could get to its code via UI scripting).
Thanks!

The application switcher isn't scriptable, but you might try using VoiceOver since that does speak the application name.

Can I make Cmd-~ behave like Cmd-Tab?

With Cmd-Tab app switching, invoking it once would alternative between the current and previous application. Is there any way I can make cmd-~ behave the same way with regard to the documents? I find it odd that Apple haven't thought of this, as cycling through document is rarely waht people want.
thanks

Alternatively, you can go backwards: Cmd-` cycles through windows one way, Cmd-~ (i.e., Cmd-Shift-`) goes the other direction. You can jump back and forth between two windows by alternating with the shift key.

Blurry icons in Cmd-TAB Application Switcher

Hello.
As I constantly use the Cmd-TAB app.switcher, it kind of bothers me that one specific application keeps showing a blurry icon (probably resized 128x128 instead of the 512x512). I know this is a known buggy behaviour since Leopard, but it should often be OK after a restart.
Mine doesn't, and what's even stranger : in another user account the icon works fine every time I launch this application.
Resetting the PRAM didn't work. Could the problem be some cache file ? If so, how to resolve it ?
TIA

Create a new admin user account, log into it, launch a few apps, CMD+tab, and see if looks normal. If so, open the new user's Preferences folder, make a list of those files, log back into the mucked up user account, move those same plist files to an empty Desktop folder, log out and back in, and see if that fixes things. If so, then delete the moved files and reset the preferences for the things on the list.

How do I make an app running in the background appear in the dock?

I've tried searching the rest of the web, but all I can find is how to pin an app to the dock. I already know how to do that.
What I want to do is make an app that doesn't appear even when it's running (my specific case is SugarSync) appear as an icon in the dock. I know I can get to it by either clicking or right-clicking on the mini icon on the right side of the menu bar, but I want to be able to switch to it using the dock or open-apple+tab, like I can with everything else.

It depends on the data path from the tower you're using, through NATs and many routers, all the way back to the server. Which depends on your current location and sheer luck.
For some users, the data path stays alive for 30-45 minutes at a time... thus the phone only has to ping the server that often for push to work. Their push doesn't use much battery.
Other users have the misfortune of being connected via pathways that only keep a connection alive for 5-10 minutes. Their iPhones eat battery like crazy, and they usually end up switching to a 15-30 minute timed fetch instead.

Make switching apps (Cmd-Tab) skip hidden apps?

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