AltSwitch:
www.ironbytes.comAltSwitch is shareware. As you can see from the screenshots below
is has a pleasing, compact interface and has many features, my
favourites being the ability to select a program using my mouse
pointer and the option to show the process usage. In the first
frame of the main window you can see the tooltip that appears
when you move your mouse over the icons.
You can also right click on any displayed application and minimize it
to the system tray.
Problematic programs that won't display a snapshot properly in the
main dialog can be excluded under the "Exclusions" tab in the options
menu shown below in the second screenshot. You also have the option
to exclude known problematic programs from a list available to download
via server.
$15 is fairly reasonable for such a cool little program that is stable and uses
little resources. I can't remember how long the trial peroid was for, I believe
30 days. I only needed a few hours with it to cough up my cash!
From the developer's site:
"Nice computer desktop must be nice in all of its aspects. One of the ugliest things in any Microsoft Windows-based computer is a built-in Alt+Tab task switcher. It remains unchanged since Windows 95, released in August 1995."
Flexible skin support.
Task previews.
Tasks performance monitoring.
Two styles of task previews – "Fit" and "Desktop".
All windows of the task are displayed on the preview image, including floating palettes.
Previews caching for faster switching.
Set of simple task management commands.
Easy switching with HotSwitch feature.
With AltSwitch you can minimize any window to the system tray.
Internet integration.
Mouse navigation support.
TaskSwitchXP is a similar program (almost too similar...
Last build of AltSwitch - 9 September 2004, first build of TaskSwitchXP - 8 November 2004) it's free and you can get it here:
www.ntwind.com/taskswitchxp/index.html
