Is there a way to make the grouped windows appear as one in the alt-Tab menu? Like if I have three Chrome windows grouped as one, I can still see the three windows separated in the alt-tab menu
Hello,Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need more information on your system. Please refer here: https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1387954187/Contacting+Stardock+About+Groupy+Issues
ThanksBasj,Stardock Community Assistant.
It's not really an issue, just wondering if there is a way to achieve what I am looking for
Unfortunately the Windows OS has limitations which links the alt-tab window to the virtual desktop window. Anything thats hidden from alt-tab is considered to be pinned to all desktops. Thats why we opted to show all in Alt-Tab.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think hiding windows from alt+tab without pinning them to all virtual desktops should be possible. If the plan was to use Windows API, then I'm assuming the extended windows style WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW was being used which would indeed hide the window/s from the alt+tab but pin it to all virtual desktops. If so, a better solution would be to use the Windows API to set the owner of the grouped windows to a single owner window. By doing that, only the owner window will show up in the alt+tab menu and none of the windows will be pinned to all virtual desktops. Furthermore, the owner window could dynamically update to be the last active window in the group so that the alt+tab menu shows the group in the alt + tab menu as the last active window(in the group) & it will show that specific window's live preview. Or perhaps the owner window could be one created by Groupy 2 for the group so that it has it's own custom icon in the alt +tab menu and perhaps a custom thumbnail as the 'live preview' for easier/quicker identification.
As Alanyyab said in his other post before being referred here, this issue is "really the only thing stopping me from purchasing Groupy 2."
I've been playing with the various options in Groupy 2 and sometimes I can get it to show just one item on the ALT-TAB screen no matter how many windows are in the group. Other times I can't get it to do that at all. I have no idea what combination of things gets it to work that way. So I went searching, found this thread, and learn that Groupy 2 is not able to do that?!?
So I'm very confused because I've seen it do that!
Played some more... In SETTINGS | GENERAL, under taskbar button options, I had it set to "Show only active window". That works fine for the taskbar itself, but ALT-TAB still showed all windows in the group.
Then I changed the option to "Show only one combined button". After it changed the taskbar setup, that combined button showed 5/6/7 windows from the group. It varied. I don't know how/why it picked the number to display when hovering over the combined button. And ALT-TAB still showed all windows in the group.
Then I changed back to the "Show only active window" option. The taskbar icon then showed (when hovering over it) ALL the windows in the group, just like it did before using Groupy 2 at all.
Then I switched between (rolled through, showed) all the windows in the group, going to each tab. And then not only did the taskbar button go back to showing just the active window/tab, ALT-TAB also showed just a single window!
I have no idea what happens behind the scenes in that scenario, but it worked.
Now if I close the tabs and open them again, I have to go through that whole process again. So that combination seems to be tricking something, whether it's Groupy 2 or Windows itself (Win11 in this case).
Using Groupy 1.5 on windows 10, If I change the taskbar options, "Show only active window" it does show only the active window in the group on the ALT-TAB menu, no further configuration needed. But it would be nice to have the windows on the task bar and only hide them from the ALT-TAB menu.
I just tried your method of going to Groupy Settings > General > "How should taskbar buttons..." and toggling between "Show all" and "Show only active window". It didn't work at first, but eventually the second option was able to group the windows both on the taskbar and in Alt+Tab.
Hi,
In the Windows settings, when you do Alt-Tab, you can choose to display all the tabs of the Edge browser or simply a window. This proves that when windows are grouped in a single window, You can decide to display them all or show me only one. So in Groupy it should be possible to make this choice.
Thank you for a new update with this feature
I am afraid things are not quite as simple as that. Microsoft put that directly into the OS for MS edge only.
Hi Neal,
Thanks for the reply. That does not explain why this feature was available automatically in Groupy 1.5.1, but not in 2.15. Also using Jimbo234567's method above seemed to bring fix the functionality, indicating there is some sort of bug in the code. See screenshots below:
Before Cycling through "How should taskbar buttons for grouped windows appear?" options, three windows appear in the Alt+Tab window switcher, although Excel and Word are grouped.
After Cycling through "How should taskbar buttons for grouped windows appear?" options, only two windows appear in Alt+Tab window switcher, as it did in Groupy 1.5.1.
Windows version:
Hi Neil,
Just want to follow-up here. Are there any solutions in the works? I'm considering downgrading back to 1.5.1.
I've just upgraded to Goupy 2, and am disappointed by the ALT-TAB behavior. I'll try to get used to it - or downgrade...
What I find curious is that cycling through the "How should taskbar buttons for grouped windows appear?" options makes the software behave exactly as you would expect. As demonstrated by hocl8thundr747, when the option is set to "Show only active windows," the taskbar displays only the active windows in the group, and the Alt-Tab menu does the same. This clearly shows that implementing such functionality is possible. I've added a video to illustrate my point.
Please consider addressing this issue—it’s clear that many users would appreciate having this feature.
Stardock, a little work, we're almost there. That would be really, really really cool !
Hello,Sorry to hear you are having issues. I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience.
Thank you,Basj,Stardock Community Assistant.
Hello all,
Thank you each for the feedback on this. In my testing, it seems you should be able to achieve the same results in Groupy 2 as in Groupy 1, by selecting the "Show only active window" option.
However, I have reproduced some of the mentioned inconsistencies, depending on the order in which you "cycle" to get to that option with Alt + Tab. I now have this logged internally for review.
Internal Ref: ODNT-9242
Thanks again and best regards,
Adam McGuinnessStardock Customer Support Specialist
YES!! Thank you. ❤️
Thank you!! Looking forward to an update. I'm currently downgraded to 1.5.1 but will upgrade again once patched.
Looking forward to this update!
GTA6 going to drop before the devs fix this issue
There isn't a bug here, this is a request for something.
It is not possible to achieve what you want in a consistent manner due to limitations in the OS where there is a link between apps seen on the taskbar, seen in alt tab, and showing on all virtual desktops.
Changing owner of a window is not a good solution as it can cause a number of problems should an app stop responding.
There isn't a bug here, this is a request for something.It is not possible to achieve what you want in a consistent manner due to limitations in the OS where there is a link between apps seen on the taskbar, seen in alt tab, and showing on all virtual desktops.Changing owner of a window is not a good solution as it can cause a number of problems should an app stop responding.
I'll admit that I can't speak to the technical difficulties of implementing this. However, what frustrates me the most is the fact that this feature worked well in version 1.5 on Windows 11, which is the reason I bought version 2.0. So if this isn't a bug, it's definitely a downgrade. I guess I'll just keep using a pirated copy of version 1.5 since I couldn't even figure out how to use the license for 2.0 on the 1.5 version.
Stardock has a zero tolerance for the promotion and/or use of warez.
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