Alt-tab seems slow, my machine has the proper drivers installed and everything else is fast except alt-tab. Setting the plugin to show icons instead of window previews doesn't help.

Is this a bug or is a way to speed this up?

3

5 Answers

It ends up that there is a delay of 2ms set in the alt-tab switcher (called the Static Application Switcher) by default.

To change it, use you can use CompizConfig Settings Manager . After you install it, run it via the dash by searching for compiz or just run ccsm from alt-f2:

And then set Popup Window Delay to 0 in the behavior tab.

And crank up the speed:

4

12.10

1. Requirements: You will need Compiz Config Settings Manager (CCSM).

   sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

   You may also need the Compiz Plugins too. The compiz plugins were included in compizconfig-settings-manager in earlier versions of Ubuntu

   sudo apt-get install compiz-plugins

2. Enable Static Application Switcher

   CCSM > Window Management > Static Application Switcher > Check the box to enable it.

   2.1 You will be prompted with a "bindings conflict" dialogue. Select Resolve conflicts.

   2.2 Now you will be prompted with this monstrosity:

   Select yes to disable any and all conflicts. Which one is yes? The third option, furthest to the right, it will always be the third option furthest to the right.

   You will now get a weird Application Switcher when you Alt+Tab. It will look like you've broken everything. Next we'll configure it.

3. Go to CCSM > Window Management > Static Application Switcher >

   3.1 Bindings

   CCSM > Window Management > Static Application Switcher > Bindings

   • Ensure the Next window binding is set to Alt+Tab
   • Ensure the Prev window binding is set to Shift+Alt+Tab
   • Ensure the Next window (All windows) binding is set to Control+Primary+Alt+Tab
   • Ensure the Prev window (All windows) binding is set to Shift+Control+Primary+Alt+Tab
   • Ensure all the binding above are disabled in the CCSM Ubuntu Unity Plugin (UUP). The binding for UUP can be found in CCSM > Ubuntu Unity Plugin > Switcher.

   The Static Application Switcher Bindings should like something like this:

   And the Ubuntu Unity Plugin Bindings should look something like this (notice that the first 4 bindings are disabled, because we're using the static application switcher):

   3.2 Behaviour

   CCSM > Window Management > Static Application Switcher > Behaviour

   • Speed = 50.0000

   • Timestep = 10.0000

     Timestep is how often the window's direction is recalculated. A high timestep will result in windows that overshoot their position and bounce back, and a low timestep will result in windows that drift slowly and accurately to their position. -

   • Popup Window Delay = 0.0000

   3.3 Appearance

   CCSM > Window Management > Static Application Switcher > Appearance

   • Show icon only = Yes:Checked

Done! Alt+Tab should be much faster.

4

"Quick Alt-Tab" switches between two upper windows in stack of many windows. Try to open many windows and press Alt-Tab quickly, not waiting for appearance of graphical "windows picker". Obviously small delay is to enable this feature.

1

Changing the popup window delay won't change the speed at which the applications switch. On the same settings page as in your answer, change 'Speed' from the default 4 to 1. That sped things up a lot on my setup.

2

It is the "window manager" that introduces these delays. If you have installed ubuntu-mate-desktop on top of Ubuntu 16.04, you can run mate-tweak to allow selection of an alternate window manager.

For a low-latency experience, try "Marco (No compositor)".

To do this from the command-line run:

marco --no-composite --replace

4

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