Fix Shortcut Hotkey to switch properly between open windows?

Question

I have a new laptop (Windows 10). For various Windows Shortcuts (*.lnk), I have opened Properties and defined a "Shortcut key" (ie, Ctrl-Alt-L). In this discussion I'll call it the hotkey. Then when I hit the hotkey , the corresponding program opens and is the TOP active window. Later, when I have a dozen or so program windows open and I want to quickly jump to one of those windows, I simply hit that same hotkey and expect that window to be active and on TOP, which is the way I have it working on all prior Windows computers I have owned.

But now, with this new PC the hotkey simply makes that open program's indicator on the task bar blink, BUT it does not bring that program window to the TOP. This makes my work-flow 10 times harder than it needs to be, as I jump between many windows very often (Alt-Tab, Win-Tab, etc are just too time consuming with the number of windows I typically have open).

I seem to recall seeing this symptom in the past on a prior PC I owned, but I do not recall how I fixed it. I've searched the web now for a solution, but it is hard to describe the problem in a search and I'm getting irrelevant results.

This is driving me crazy. I would hugely appreciate anyone who has the solution, even if it involves me editing my registry (I'm a retired database programmer). Thanks for any help.

I'll add that if I press Win-D to show the desktop and then hit the hotkey, the correct window will be restored and the active TOP window (though of course that extra step would not be a solution for my needs, too cumbersome).

Note: Using hotkeys to jump to existing Windows only applies to applications that only allow one instance of the program to run. For other applications the hotkey would instead open up an additional (new) window/instance of that program.

Answer 1

Hi @Mark W

You can use Microsoft Power Toys utilities for various feature related to your Windows Computer and ease of use.

In your case you can use "Always on Top utility" and ""Windows key shortcut guide" from Power Toys.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/shortcut-guide

Hope this answers your question :)
Thank you.

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