Expose for Windows Vista/7 [Clone] : Divide By Zero

I use an iMac at work and whatever you say about Mac, one thing is for sure, Expose is genius. I am almost angry that this functionality isn't in Windows 7. Nobody uses Flip3D. Well, some do but I don't.

Enter Switcher. A free app switcher ala Expose, that works with multiple monitors. I will go through some cool features that will make Switcher look and act like OS X Expose.

Setting up Shortcuts

I recommend setting up Switcher to activate when you press the middle-mouse button. You can be a real power user using this shortcut.

Open up Switcher, then go to the Shortcuts tab, click “Change” next to Mouse shortcut.

Set up a shortcut that looks like this:

We also need to disable closing windows by using the middle-mouse because that will cause weird behavior.

Select the shortcut in the list under “Close Window” that uses the middle-mouse and click “Remove Shortcut.”

(Note: I already removed in in this screenshot)

Styling the Windows

By default Switcher uses a funky blue hue style that just doesn’t match the aesthetics of the Aero environment. Let’s try to fix that.

Go to the Window Style tab and make the following changes:

Uncheck everything for “Normal” Window State.

Choose “Selected” Window State.

Under Label, make it look like this:

For the two colors, I made the first black with about 75% opacity and the second black with 85% opacity.

For Frame, make it look like this:

Same idea for the two colors, except much lower opacity, about 15% for the first black and 30% for the second.

Uncheck “Number.”

Now your window style should look like this:

Lastly, go to the “Appearance” tab and uncheck “Enable window numbers.”

There you go, now you have a similarly-styled slick look for your Expose clone.

Comments

And if YOU don't use it... nobody uses it? I use flip 3d every day, all day. I have it enabled on my center button on my mouse. Works great!

Posted by: .kev
On May 12, 2009 11:28 AM

Just saying Expose/Switcher is way better than Flip3D.

With Flip you need to "flip" through all available windows or find it in the stack and click it.

With switcher/expose, all the windows are visible and you can immediately click it.

To each his own.

Note: Switcher works with Windows 7 too. I set it up using the middle-mouse button.

Posted by: Kamran
On May 12, 2009 11:40 AM

This whole windows customization thing is getting really close to a mac wannabee, do you have the docking station installed too?

Posted by: Jake
On May 17, 2009 2:11 AM

Nah, I am not a huge fan of the Dock. It's too bad MS wanted to emulate THAT part of OS X rather than some of the good parts.

Also Jake, that test wasn't SO bad... it was easier than I had anticipated.

Posted by: Kamran
On May 17, 2009 7:21 AM

Wah... its looking great. Thanks for your tips for setting the windows as you like. Hopping, this will be appreciated by the users. Best wishes from Pamela.

Posted by: Pamela
On June 24, 2009 4:43 AM

Lol @ kev.

Don't be so hard on yourself, you don't use flip3d.

Posted by: Shawn McCool
On July 1, 2009 2:35 PM

Hmm..this is a little pointless cause in 2003 when Expose was first introduced in Panther, Windows tried and tried not to copy but they finally budged in Vista and copied it. We call it Flip 3D. The difference? Flip 3D makes your windows sort out in a diagonal direction, and Expose just sorts the out normally.

Posted by: Krishna Pathak
On August 9, 2009 11:35 AM

Just for everyone's info, with the microsoft Mouse driver you can enable "flip," "flip3d" and "instant viewer" which are three ways of seeing your open windows. Flip is like alt-tab, flip3d is obvious (rolodex), and "instant viewer" is almost like expose, but not as good.

-Dan

Posted by: dAN
On August 19, 2009 3:28 PM

Thanks for telling about this PERFECT piece of software. I am totally happy.
Compiz fusion for linux has other impressive designed effects, but this Expose like thing is by far the most useful (and there Compiz is weaker-no zoom on hoovering over, problems with minimized windows at least 2008 it was like that).

I can recommend these settings:
when I press the middle mouse button, all windows appear tiled on screen, when i move the mouse pointer over the window and release the middle mouse button again its selected.

- This whole window switching is almost faster than even moving the mouse to the task bar.
.. now I just need some kind of krunner for windows and I´m happy..

Posted by: Simon
On August 27, 2009 10:00 AM

Thanks a lot for the hints about setting up this software... I was thinking it wasn't really compatible with W7 when i found something about the middle mouse button to close windows... that's all i needed to fix everything.
I think this is not exactly as Exposè but really gives you something similar. Actually the best exposè emulation software working on W7.
Btw, do anyone of you knows something about emulating also the spaces feature of osx? I found some 3rd part softwares but they do not really work good... they're slow and full of bugs...
The spaces feature is awesome, gives you the possibility to switch between applications integrated in organized spaces where you can perform complex actions in a couple of clicks... really amazing!
thanks a lot to all and sorry for my foreign english... ;)

Posted by: Akvo
On August 27, 2009 2:34 PM

Wow Thanks! This looks great.

I can't say I'm a fan of the new taskbar either. A few minutes into using Windows 7 I was praying for an expose like feature.

Posted by: Manolo
On August 27, 2009 9:15 PM

Worked Perfect in Windows 7 RTM.
Many Thanks for providing the settings.
:)

Posted by: Chovija
On September 12, 2009 10:46 PM

Whenever i go to switch windows my screen just goes black and doesnt allow me to do anything, can someone help me?

Posted by: Cain
On September 21, 2009 4:08 AM

Hy there

Great piece of software. I' a MAC fan, but unfortunately I can't use them every day at work (the telecom industry is not that MAC friendly). Plus Windows 7 is a great improvement. This little app that you described here does it all, enhancing my productivity (cyclyng through a lot of Putty sessions can get frustrating) and reminding me of the old MAC days.

Thank you!

Posted by: SebyP
On October 18, 2009 12:30 PM

Hi I got a big problem with Switcher on W7 !!! I just can't use it since I have switch to w7 :'(... There is the capture of my screen.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4384/switcher.png
[URL=http://img340.imageshack.us/i/switcher.png/][IMG]http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/4384/switcher.th.png[/IMG][/URL]

Is anyone can help me. I give my email adress here : j_nthan@hotmail.com (I am not crazy this is not my main adress but I consult it regularly).

Thank you for your help !!!

Posted by: Jon-JON
On October 18, 2009 5:06 PM

I can't wait for my new laptop as it will have W7 on it, and as soon as I get it I'll be trying out Switcher. It does look a lot more useful than Flip3D. Thanks for the heads up.

Posted by: Chris
On November 19, 2009 4:10 AM