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

Solution 1:

For anyone who is using Ubuntu 18 (to give you the same behavior as e.g. on Windows10):

• go to settings > devices > keyboard
• look for the keyboard shortcut for "Switch windows"
• set this to the shortcut Alt+Tab (this will overwrite the old shortcut)

If you now press Alt+Tab you will be able to directly select all open windows without grouping into the different apps.

Solution 2:

• Open dconf-editor
• Go to org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings
• Move the value '<Alt>Tab' from switch-applications to switch-windows
• Optionally move '<Shift><Alt>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 <Alt>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.

Solution 3:

From the comment by 'xaeth' on this Ergo Project blog post, I have learned that Alt+Esc will cycle through all windows without grouping by application. This was the simplest solution for me, and I'm glad it saved me from having to install other programs.

If testing with Alt+Esc turns out favorably for you, then you can go to System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Navigation and reassign Alt+Tab to perform the navigation task that was previously assigned to Alt+Esc. In my settings this task is named 'Switch windows directly'.

Solution 4:

Little help -

Alt+Tab and then when you have grouped windows Alt+` helps a bit.