Witch

essential application imo

I've tried several other apps like this, and after paying for a different one discovered that Witch is more mature and has a better feature set. I have had problems intermittently with lag for command-tab switching, but after upgrading to Sierra (which required the painful switch away from Karabiner to Karabiner Elements) and then some changes to my Karabiner-Elements setup suggest that one of my Karabiner-Elements configs might have been at fault for the lag. I'll adjust my rating down if it turns out that Witch itself is to blame. But the feature set is really top-notch. I'm hoping that its performance is equivalent.

The only reason I didn't try Witch before the competitors is that I tried it MANY years ago when it only (AFAIK) did Windows-style switching, which switches windows instead of apps. While I can understand a former Windows user wanting that, I find Apple's app-oriented switching to be superior 95% of the time for my style of working. Fortunately Witch now lets you do both, and also a combination, where you can first switch between apps, and then (without opening a different switcher UI) drill down into the windows for the chosen app. This is the best of both worlds. It is also HIGHLY configurable.

There are some features I would like it to have, but nothing else (AFAIK) has them. It would be awesome if we could write functions (shell or AppleScript) to determine if an app is shown or hidden from the command-tab switching menu. This would allow much more sophisticated control over that.

It would also be nice if we could explicitly hide an app from the switcher in the current workspace, using (e.g.) shift-control-H. This would allow ad-hoc changes to which apps we want to show and hide, and wouldn't require OS hiding to result in Witch switcher hiding, because I never find that the two are the same for me.

Some people have complained about the price. HUUUHHHHHH? It's very cheap! Developers need to eat and pay rent! It might seem "simple" because it serves a very well-defined need, but an app like this is actually a very impressive feat. I'm glad to pay for it.

My only serious concern is the performance issue. If that returns, and cannot be attributed to something else, then I'll drop the stars WAY down. If you see this remain at 5 stars, then I recommend this over all the others like it.

This app has so much potential but is ultimately frustrating becuase of its limited functionality with respect to detecting tabs. I understand why this is the case, different apps have different implementations and not all use Apple's APIs, but it's extremely frustrating for users who are really only looking only for this functionality. In particular some apps show as not having tabbed windows at all, even of they do, such as Finder, others like Terminal show as having tabs, but cannot handle name changes to the tabs. Very disappointing.

No day without it. Didn't even think about upgrading to 4.0 for a second. :)

Nice addition to OS X's default Command + Tab switching. I wonder why Apple haven't implemented something like this. I wish it could detect tabs inside each window, but that's the limitation imposed by Apple's Accessibility API. Maybe someday. Even without that, it is an excellent workflow enhancement.

Nützliche und hervorragend umgesetzte Erweiterung.

Warum werden Nutz dieser hervorragenden Erweiterung, die diese über den App-Store gekauft haben, so vernachlässigt? Während hier schon die Version 3.9.7 verfügbar ist, steht im App-Store seit 11. August 2014 immer noch nur die Version 3.9.4 zum Download.

Witch broken by Yosemite. Attempting to activate Witch brings up message to grant access to Witch in Security & Privacy preference pane. But when I go to that pane, click plus, and attempt to select Witch, it is greyed out. Selecting "system preferences" does not help with respect to Witch.

I'm sorry... I'm a good Mac lover since 2000, and trying to be kind here but... Witch is a bloated helper, resource-hungry and sporting features I don't even need: Apple should get LiteSwitch code and inject it into the next OS release instead. Pleasea

A wonderful app, totally indispensable for me! I moved recently from Windows to OSX, and the one thing I could not stand about OSX is the handling of applications and windows. I used Windows and Linux for decades, and would use Alt-Tab hundreds of times a day and was very fast at switching back and forth between windows. So I found the Mac's handling of Cmd-Tab to be a huge regression - I found it simply dreadful having to Cmd-Tab between apps, then separately cycle between windows with another shortcut. Enter Witch, which solves all these problems, and has quite a few customisations and extra features which actually make it much better than Windows/Linux switching. I very much like the numbering of windows, allowing the quick selection of a window by hitting its number. It has a good selection of fully customisable shortcuts (I have the main switcher configured to Cmd-Tab, disabling OSX's default application switcher, which I never use.) You can ignore apps or windows that match certain patterns, which is useful for excluding certain types of windows/panels that you never want to switch to. And the appearance is fully customisable with sensible and attractive defaults. It's also fast and stable - I've never had a crash or seen a glitch. For me, there's only one missing feature right now: the ability to disable the mouse from affecting the switcher. I often Cmd-Tab with my left hand with the mouse in my right, and that can cause me to move the pointer over the switcher, changing the selected window. This can slow my down sometimes, getting in the way of quickly flicking back and forth between windows. I'm contacting support to suggest they add that. It's wonderful tool and I really can't enjoy OSX without it. If I could run only one productivity/UI app on OSX, it would be Witch.

Witch is great! But is there any way that I can "reactivate" minimized apps just like in Witch but in the regular Mac OS?

So what ever happen to Witch 4, which Many Tricks last mentioned below back on December 8, 2010 (more than 2 years ago)? Count me as another unsatisfied customer who has switched to Optimal Layout (formerly WindowFlow). A 2-year silence from the developer is not good for future business.

It seem like Witch uses too much virtual memory for what I use it for. I just have it as an alternative way to switch between apps with gestures since if I use xgestures with the native apple app switcher there's a bug with apple or whatever that will make it scroll continuously as if I'm pressing and holding Command-tab without letting go. Witch handles it much better, but I'm not sure it should be using so much VM as it goes. (it uses as much as safari does) - Mac OS 10.6.7 / Witch 3.7

Witch used to be great, but it now pales in comparison to newer alternatives, like Switche or WindowFlow.

Can't see previews of Photoshop photos, I mean first tab is visible. There is also problem with psd-cmyk photos- cant see prev. Generally this version is unstable. I'll wait until next update will be available.

Witch gets unresponsive when the system is under high load (while I am able to use any other application like ms word, watch movies etc.). Emailed to the developper but got no response.

Great addition..But 'windows previews' implemented poorly. Just make them appear on the left Side so the previews wont Cover/hide the other windows. Thanks.

This new feature, previews of windows, is overly cool, wonderful, BEAUTYful. Cant't believe you guys are putting this in a free update. Thank you!

Yeah, SPACES, they've finally done it!

A good, solid update to Witch. The new customization options are nice, and the ability to replace Command+Tab and Command+` is just what I was hoping for. I don't use Spaces, so fortunately I'm not bothered by the lack of compatibility. The upgrade price for Witch 2 owners is very reasonable at less than half of the full purchase price. Unlike with Leech, I don't grudge the upgrade cost for Witch. Other than the 32-bit pref pane annoyance, it worked fine for me in Snow Leopard, and I feel like I got my money's worth from it. I'm glad to see Many Tricks back up and running, and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that, with their new organizational scheme, the old inconsistencies with updates and support won't be issues any more. People are starting to mention WindowFlow in here. I think it's a good utility too, but there are a couple of things that still make Witch the clear winner for me at this point. First and foremost is that WindowFlow doesn't properly keep track of the order of minimized or hidden windows (at least when sorting by window activity). It lumps them together at the end of the list, so any time you minimize or hide a window it goes to the bottom and throws off the sorting order, which is a major annoyance since I use minimized windows a lot. The second thing is the lack of a function to cycle the windows of the frontmost application only. That said, I can see why heavy Spaces users might prefer WindowFlow at this point. Whichever utility you prefer, it's always nice to have alternatives :)