• Classic Window Switcher (cws) is a reimplementation of the classic CSRSS Windows Alt+Tab window switcher, designed to work on modern versions of Windows, including Windows 11 24H2 and later.
• Also, it features more modern features, such as UWP icon support, richer navigation with mouse and arrow keys, better HiDPI support, and more.
• Based on the Simple Window Switcher (sws) from ExplorerPatcher by Valinet.

• Build ClassicWindowSwitcher and cws-loader projects, and run ClassicWindowSwitcher.exe.
• Loading CWS inside Explorer.exe is also possible by using the cws-loader.wh.cpp Windhawk mod from this repository. You must change the DLL path in the mod settings to point to your path of ClassicWindowSwitcher.dll.
• You can also put the CWS DLL as C:\Windows\dxgi.dll to have it loaded by Explorer.exe automatically on every launch, replacing the default Windows Alt+Tab switcher.
• Note that you must disable the default Windows Alt+Tab switcher by setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTabSettings to 1 (DWORD) for the standalone CWS executable to work properly.

If you need more information, you can also consult the GitHub Actions automated build file here.

The following prerequisites are necessary in order to compile this project:

• Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing Compiler - this can be obtained by installing either of these packages:

  • Visual Studio - this is a fully featured IDE; you'll need to check "C/C++ application development role" when installing. If you do not require the full suite, use the package bellow.
  • Build Tools for Visual Studio - this just installs the compiler, which you'll be able to use from the command line, or from other applications like CMake

  Download either of those here. The guide assumes you have installed either Visual Studio 2019, either Build Tools for Visual Studio 2019.

• A recent version of the Windows SDK - for development, version 10.0.19041.0 was used, available here (this may also be offered as an option when installing Visual Studio)

• Git - you can use Git for Windows, or git command via the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Steps:

1. Clone git repo

   git clone https://github.com/valinet/sws
   

   If "git" is not found as a command, type its full path, or have its folder added to PATH, or open Git command window in the respective folder if using Git for Windows.

2. Compile sws

   • Double click the SimpleWindowSwitcher.sln file to open the solution in Visual Studio. Choose Release and your processor architecture in the toolbar. Press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[B] or choose "Build" - "Build solution" to compile.

   • Open an "x86 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019" (for x86), or "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019" (for x64) (search that in Start), go to folder containing solution file and type:

     • For x86:

       msbuild ExplorerPatcher.sln /property:Configuration=Release /property:Platform=x86
       

     • For x64:

       msbuild ExplorerPatcher.sln /property:Configuration=Release /property:Platform=x64
       

   The resulting libraries will be in the "Release" (for x86) or "x64\Release" (for x64) folder in the directory containing the solution file.

That's it.

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Ingan121\ClassicWindowSwitcher
• Everything here is REG_DWORD

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Contol Panel\Desktop