atommachinist
atommachinist on Hacker News
Posted by
atommachinist on Tuesday July 15, 2025 @11:50AM
from the ask-hn dept.
Last week I made a post about my solution to window management.https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44500066Some of the comments were people sharing their window management solution so I thought I'd give people another opportunity to share.What is your window management solution?
I’ll gladly accept feedback or constructive criticism at any point. That being said, if you want to work with me more closely and continue to provide honest feedback, I’d be willing to offer a free license to a handful of early users.
I did a lot of testing so it’s a fully working version, not a beta. This would just a thank-you for helping out early. You can reach me at [email protected]
Thanks everyone!
I went back and forth on what I should include in the demo video. I was considering making a mock workflow but didn't want to distract from showcasing the shortcut methods functionality. My suggestion would be to try it with your own workflows.
I am actually considering taking the concept further. Probably the most obvious would be browser tabs which would require creating a browser extension. I don't know if having the shortcut switch both windows and tabs would be helpful or start to become confusing.
The Copilot idea is interesting, I'll have to look into it. One thing I want to be clear on is once you press the override shortcut, the override is saved as the default switch option for that window and the algorithm won't change this.
This actually works fine a lot of the time. There are just cases where that isn't the window I want to switch to. I wanted to find a solution that would cover more of these cases. One example is when my computer starts I have a some applications that automatically run. I don't want to tab through the Alt + Tab list to get it in the right order, I want it to be ready to go.
Appreciate all the feedback so far!
For those who do try the demo or trial version, or purchase the full version, if you want to take a more active role in providing feedback, you can email me at [email protected].
Thanks! The long term goal of Smart Switcher is that the algorithm becomes reliable enough that window switching almost always requires only one Alt + Tab press. It's an ambitious goal that will require a lot of work, but that is the goal.
For me, Alt + Tab was always almost good enough. I find the shortcut itself to be a good experience but as you said, it's annoying tabbing through the window list. The idea with Smart Switcher is that you wouldn't need to override too often so it ends up being less keystrokes then tabbing through the window list.
I completely agree, a lot of the existing solutions are too complicated. I just want to be clear that once you use the override shortcut, the algorithm won't have any effect on the your switch order. When you are ready to switch windows, if you use the switch shortcut to switch from window A and it takes you to window B (because this is that the algorithm predicted) but this isn't what you wanted, you would press the override shortcut to go to C instead. Now because you have an override in effect for A, every time you switch from A it will take you to C, unless you use the override shortcut again.
The algorithm started off by using one of those more simple methods and has evolved a lot since then. I'm exploring a few different directions now. It's difficult to say what will be the best direction to take it in until I have some more data to see what's working. I want to make something that works well for a lot of different types of workflows.
Tiling window managers are great and I admit they gave me some inspiration for this project. I just don't find myself needing to have windows be split screen very often, at least not more then two. The one exception to this is terminals which I usually keep in a separate virtual desktop but besides that I would rather have the window I'm using be full screen.
That's a decent approach to window management as well. I still use virtual desktops for windows that I want to have open but don't need to switch to often. The reason I build Smart Switcher is I wanted something that works well for managing a single virtual desktop and only uses two keys for the shortcuts. By default it overrides Alt + Tab.
Posted by
atommachinist on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @10:01AM
from the show-hn dept.
https://aboveaverageuser.com/smartswitcher
Hello, my name is Andrew. I'm an indie developer and I'm excited to release Smart Switcher for Windows 10/11. I'm looking for feedback on the overall project and the application itself.I built this because I couldn't find a window switching/management solution that worked for me.
I tried all kinds of different solutions, virtual desktop extensions, obscure GUI window managers, you name...
Posted by
atommachinist on Tuesday July 01, 2025 @10:12AM
from the show-hn dept.
https://aboveaverageuser.com/smartswitcher
Hello HN, my name is Andrew. I'm an indie developer and I'm excited to release Smart Switcher.I built this because I couldn't find a window switching/management solution that worked for me.Smart Switcher is a data driven window switcher aimed at improving the overall window switching experience. It logs data on your windows switching, then a prediction algorithm analyzes this data and uses it...
Posted by
atommachinist on Sunday February 25, 2024 @11:57PM
from the ask-hn dept.
I’m trying to decide what I should do with my side projects before I find a job related to my degree. I could release some of them as open source and ask for donations, or release them as closed source and sell a license. I have invested a lot of time into them and am hoping to make at least a little revenue from them.Even if I don’t make any revenue, I think they will help me stand out in the...