ALT + TAB Windows in All Workspaces in 20.04 LTS

The application switcher and the window switcher

In Gnome Desktop, which is used on the standard Ubuntu desktop, there is an application switcher and windows switcher.

The application switcher switches between applications. Selecting an application brings all windows to the foreground. However, if you wait a little while an application with multiple windows is selected, a pane will appear showing individual windows. With Alt+Key_above_Tab, you can then select a window and bring only that to the front.

The window switcher is more traditional and shows the individual open windows.

In default Gnome Shell, only the application switcher is used. It is bound to both Alt+Tab and Super+Tab. Ubuntu currently binds the traditional window switcher to the former, and the application switcher to the latter.

The application switcher by default switches through applications on all desktops. The window switcher by default switches through applications on the current desktop only.

Changing keybindings

Keybindings for the application switcher and the window switchers can be set in Keyboard Shortcuts under "Settings", section "Navigation". Look for Switch applications and Switch windows.

Changing scope

You can change the scope of the window switcher from current workspace only to all workspaces with the command:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.window-switcher current-workspace-only false

You can change the scope of the application switcher from all workspaces to current workspace only with the command:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.app-switcher current-workspace-only true

Use the same commands, replacing set with reset and leaving out the argument (e.g. false) to reset the setting to default. You can also use the graphical tool dconf-editor (not installed by default) to change these settings.

The keyboard shortcut was changed to Alt+`, which is suboptimal for a lot of people who have developed muscle memory for the classic Alt+Tab. If you would like the previous functionality back, run this in Terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-windows "['<Alt>Tab']"

Done and done 👍🏻