What Does It Do - The Essentials?

TaskSwitchXP provides an alternative way to switch tasks using alt-tab. Described as “an advanced task management utility that picks up where the standard Windows Alt+Tab switcher leaves off” by the developers ntwind software. Quoting them more fully adequately describes the essentials of the program:

TaskSwitchXP is an advanced task management utility that picks up where the standard Windows Alt+Tab switcher leaves off. It provides the same functionality, and adds visual styles to the dialog and also enhances it by displaying thumbnail preview of the application that will be switched to.

TaskSwitchXP also has a powerful process and window management capability that allows you quickly to close/minimize applications and their groups. The unique capabilities of TaskSwitchXP make it useful for tracking down multitudinous windows, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.

Summary:

• Provides preview snapshots of all running windows (alt-tab)
• Designed for XP with XP visual styles
• Allows for windows management (minimise, cascade, etc)
• Can select groups of windows
• Multilingual
• Process/task management capabilities
• Can be set to run automatically at Startup

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

• Portable Application
• Small Memory requirement
• Simple to Use
• Keyboard, Mouse & Hotkey operation
• Good Help File
• Good Web based documentation
• Useful options
• Multilingual
• Source Code Freely Available

Cons:What’s Not So Good?

• Some of the window handling capabilities don’t behave as expected (max, min, etc. in groups)

(N.B This could be a function of the test PC setup e.g “select all” and then minimise did not work on all windows)

More About What it Does in Detail:

Again quoting from the ntwind website:

(If you want more extensive detail see the ntwind Getting Started page
which gives more details including use of function keys and hotkeys)

Switching Tasks

TaskSwitchXP works entirely in the same way as the standard Windows Alt-Tab task switcher, i.e. when the hotkey combination Alt+Tab (or Alt+Shift+Tab) is pressed, TaskSwitchXP generates the list of open windows (tasks) in which the end user is working.

This list of open windows is presented as a group of icons, with one outlined by a selection rectangle. As the end user continues to hold the Alt key and presses the Tab key, the selection rectangle moves to the next icon. The selected icon represents the application that Windows will bring to the foreground once the Alt key is released.

In addition to the standard method, TaskSwitchXP allows you to navigate the list using arrow and number keys, Page Up/Down, Home/End, etc. Also you can select a task from the list using the mouse wheel and cursor. TaskSwitchXP provides you the ability to delete and sort list items to quickly find required task and switch to.

Task Management

You should forget about old Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc)… Now you can easily get the information on processes and quickly manage running applications directly from the switcher window!

By default, TaskSwitchXP displays the information bar with a simple description of the selected application. You can replace this description by process name and identifier that let you know, which application has created the selected window. In most cases, it is enough! If you want to see full information on process (i.e. duration, CPU time, memory usage, etc), use the advanced info tip.

Multiple Selections

Often you want to close or restore all windows on your desktop, for this purpose you can easily mark all task items and then perform a mass action. Also you can visually tile or cascade a few windows of different applications (unlike the standard Windows desktop, which allows the user to tile/cascade only all open windows or windows of one Taskbar group at once).

Instances Switcher

TaskSwitchXP allows you quickly to switch between multitudinous tasks of one application (e.g. Internet Explorer, or Microsoft Word). In this mode, TaskSwitchXP automatically filters all instances of the currently foreground application.

Minimizing to System Tray

TaskSwitchXP allows you easy to hide a rarely used application to the System Tray and restore it now when it is needed.

(Pro Reviewer note: it doesn’t have to be a rarely used application)

System Tray Icon

(Click on pictures to enlarge where necessary)

Right clicking on the systray icon brings up the following dialog:

The “Applications list” shows the all the currently running applications and each instance (e.g. multiple Live Writer documents or IE explorer Windows) in the main window

The Instances list shows only the multiple (or single) instance of the application that has focus (or last had focus if all minimised?) e.g all the IE explorer windows and nothing else

N.B When an application is minimised it replaces the screenshot with the application icon and a ” - ” in a box as so:

Tray Icon sub-menus

See below or visit the ntwind website for more information on the functions and preferences.

Preferences Settings

There are multiple setting windows.
Again, click on pictures to enlarge. They are all self explanatory in how they work and what they do.

This is the application exclusion window which can also be accessed from right clicking the systray menu and selecting “New exclusion” form the “Quick preferences” sub menu.

Let the “About” credits run to the end for a little surprise (but don’t worry!)

Help

The help files are provided with the download and each topic has comprehensive notes.

More About the Main TraySwitchXP Window

This window shows all the application selected (highlighted blue in the list) and the right click context menu when right clicking on one of the applications.

The options available form the context menu are all self evident. You will note that you can kill the application process and you should be aware of the dangers of doing this before you try it out. So don’t try it unless you know what you are doing!!

Individual applications can be selected by ctrl-left click

Right clicking on an area of the main window that is not on the task list or the screenshot shows the context menu above.

Again the options are self evident and clicking on the “Show Process Info” option displays essential process information as a tooltip.

What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?

* Installer also available which contains documentation - 394KB

** With documentation

What is the My Free Review Experience?

I have been using TaskSwitchXP for a long time and it is part of my everyday experience in the basic use of my PC(s), it is permanently installed and running. I use it mainly as a straightforward task switcher and only use the windows and process handling functions occasionally. This is not a reflection on the program just how I have adapted a range of different software for different tasks. TaskSwitchXP is part of my portable application suite and therefore resides on my PC’s, laptops, USB sticks and my (ultra) portable drives.

Personally I rate this highly as:

Powerful - Stable - Simple to use

What Could Make it be Better?

1. Global options to minimise all, maximise all etc.
2. Version for Vista (non-aero Vista packages)

What Other Posts are Relevant?

Why I decided to Write This Blog, Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

What are the Tags?

Technorati Tags: My Free Review, Freeware Utilities, Utility Process Manager, Portable, Portable Freeware Portable Application, Windows, Windows XP, Independent Review, Impartial Review

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 2:05 am and is filed under Portable Freeware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.