Windows 8 App Switching Made Easy – AKA App Peekaboo

I found switching between apps on a busy touch-only machine kind of frustrating in the developer preview release of Windows 8.  There was no keyboard to hit ALT-TAB, and flipping between each app with the swipe-from-left gesture was annoying when there were more than just a couple of running apps.

When I was showing my updated slate to my MVP Summit room mate I accidentally stumbled onto a feature I’d never noticed before, and I am now officially dubbing it as App Peekaboo.

Normally, you swipe from the left of the screen to flip between apps.  If you pause 1/4 of the way through the screen then the new app is docked/snapped to take up a small piece of the screen for a side-by-side view.  However, if you just pull an app out and then return it back to the left, a different thing happens.  The side-by-side docked/snapped window appears and shows all of your alternative running apps.  You just have to touch one to bring it up.  A big improvement.  At least I think it is … I’ve never noticed this gesture before installing the Consumer Preview (beta).

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