Microsoft's PowerToys gets a Window Hopper: Alt+Tab, but only for the app you're using
The free Windows add-on now lets you flick between, say, five browser windows without wading through every other program open on your desktop.
Key points
- Microsoft added a new utility called Window Hopper to PowerToys version 0.101.2362.0, released this week.
- Window Hopper works like Alt+Tab but only cycles through windows of the app you are currently using.
- The default shortcut is Alt + backtick (the key above Tab on most keyboards), and it can be changed in settings.
- The same release brings a compact mode for Command Palette, a screen-mirroring tool called DemoMirror, and linked brightness controls across monitors.
- PowerToys is a free, open-source pack of small Windows utilities that Microsoft revived in 2019.
Microsoft has quietly slipped a genuinely useful trick into its free Windows add-on pack.
The new tool is called Window Hopper. It behaves like the familiar Alt+Tab shortcut, the one that flips you between open programs, but with a twist: it only switches between windows belonging to the app you are already using.
So if you have seven browser tabs open in three separate Chrome windows, Window Hopper lets you jump between just those Chrome windows. Everything else on your desktop stays out of the way.
How do you actually use it?
You press Alt and the backtick key, the one sitting just above Tab on most keyboards. That cycles you through the windows of whatever app is in focus. You can change the shortcut inside PowerToys settings if that combination feels awkward.
"It is especially useful when you're juggling multiple browser windows, terminals, File Explorer windows, or editor instances," Microsoft says in its release notes.
Anyone who has ever lost a Word document behind a wall of Excel sheets will get the appeal.
What is PowerToys, and is it safe to install?
PowerToys is a free bundle of small utilities Microsoft publishes for Windows. Think of it as a box of extra tools the operating system does not ship with by default: colour pickers, file renamers, keyboard remappers, that sort of thing.
It is open source, meaning the code is published publicly on Microsoft's GitHub page for anyone to inspect. The project first appeared during the Windows 95 era as hobby tools from Microsoft developers, then went dormant for years. Microsoft brought it back in 2019 as an official open-source release.
Because it comes straight from Microsoft, it is one of the safer power-user downloads out there. As always, get it from the official GitHub repository rather than a random mirror site.
What else is new in this release?
This update, first reported by BleepingComputer, packs in more than just Window Hopper. Here is the short version.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Window Hopper | Cycles between windows of the current app with Alt + backtick |
| Command Palette compact mode | Opens the quick launcher as a small search box at a spot you choose |
| PowerDisplay linked controls | Adjusts brightness across all your monitors at once |
| DemoMirror (in ZoomIt) | Mirrors a region, a window, or the whole screen to a second monitor |
| Mouse Highlighter ripple mode | Adds a visual ripple effect when you click |
Shortcut Guide, a tool added in June that shows keyboard shortcuts for Windows and whichever app you are in, now also opens with a Windows-key press.
Should you bother installing it?
If you spend your day drowning in browser windows, terminals, or File Explorer tabs, probably yes. Window Hopper is the kind of small quality-of-life feature that Mac users have had for years through the Command + backtick shortcut. Windows finally catching up, even via an optional download, is a small win.
For everyone else, PowerToys remains what it has been since 2019: a grab-bag of tools most people will never touch, and two or three that will quietly change how you use your PC.
