Anyone who regularly has multiple windows open at the same time will understand the frustration involved in switching between them. The new Taskbar in Windows 7 goes some way to alleviating this frustration, but it can still be fiddly to use, particularly when switching between different windows within the same application.

You can, of course use the old [Alt] + [Tab] keyboard shortcut to cycle via a task-switching shortcut, while [Win] + [Tab] provides the Flip3D view for most versions of Vista and Windows 7. But again, this may not be intuitive enough, or you may be running XP or Vista Home Basic, where Flip3D isn’t available.

TopDesk is designed to provide a faster means of switching between open windows. It offers three different views: Flip, which emulates Flip3D, even in earlier versions of Windows, plus Spatial and Grid for different 2D views. Unlike Windows’ own various options, TopDesk gives you more control over which windows are displayed: you can display all open windows, or restrict the view one of three ways: application windows only, visible windows only and invisible windows only. Each comes with its own function key shortcut for quick and easy access.

Once the window is open, use the cursor keys to move between the various windows – the currently selected window is either at the forefront or labelled to aid its identification; simply hit [Enter] to choose it.

TopDesk is infinitely configurable – just right-click its Taskbar Notification Area icon and choose Options. The trial version is fully functional for 14 days, after which registration is required.

TopDesk 1.5.4.3 brings these changes:

-Fixed bug where system tray icon would not be displayed under specific circumstances.
-Bug Fix - Minor performance improvements.