alt tab - How to prevent Gnome-shell's Alt+Tab from grouping windows from similar apps?

I love pretty much everything about how Gnome Shell handles app-switching through Alt+Tab. My one gripe with it, though, is how it forces the user to use Alt+` (or Alt+ whatever key above the Tab key for non-US keyboard layouts) to switch between windows of the same app. This is very annoying for me, because now I have to keep in mind if the last window I was using belonged to the same app as the current window or not. Definitely a nuisance for power users who thinks in terms of "windows I'm working with" instead of "applications I'm working on".

I've tried the AlternateTab extension ( https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/ ), but it's looks way too ugly for me. Not to mention that in the end all I want is to remap Alt+(key above tab) to Alt+Tab on this application. I guess one option would be to just tweak Gnome-shell. My guess is that I should tinker with the altTab.js file at /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/, but the file is too long and overwhelming for someone like me, who doesn't know JavaScript.

Does anyone know how I can make Gnome Shell stop grouping windows by applications?

Answer

• Open dconf-editor


• Go to org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings


• Move the value 'Tab' from switch-applications to switch-windows


• Optionally move 'Tab' from switch-applications-backward to switch-windows-backward


• If you want switch-windows to work across desktops, not just in the current desktop, you can also uncheck org/gnome/shell/window-switcher/current-workspace-only (Courtesy of @CharlBotha)


• Close dconf-editor


• If using X11, press F2, then type r to restart Gnome.

The last step does not always appear to be necessary, but it should not hurt (especially since it does not close any of your running applications). It will not work, and is not necessary for Wayland.