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Issue metadata

Status: Assigned
Owner:
Cc:
Components:
EstimatedDays: ----
NextAction: ----
OS: Chrome
Pri: 3
Type: Bug



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can't predict which screen alt-tab switcher will appear on

Project Member Reported by agoode@chromium.org, Oct 7 2016

Issue description

Version 54.0.2840.51 beta (64-bit)
Platform 8743.57.0 (Official Build) beta-channel panther
Firmware Google_Panther.4920.24.26

What steps will reproduce the problem?
(1) alt-tab to a window
(2) alt-tab again

What is the expected output?
I expect the alt-tab switcher to always be on the primary screen, or possibly all screens simultaneously.

What do you see instead?
Sometimes the alt-tab switcher is on one screen, sometimes it's on the other. I can't ever tell. Nor do I ever want it only on my small, non-primary screen.

 
Owner: tbuck...@chromium.org
Status: Assigned (was: Untriaged)
Cc: tbuck...@chromium.org
Owner: est...@chromium.org
@estade, what's the logic for deciding which screen will show the Alt+Tab dialog?
(please re-assign back to me when responded)

Comment 4 by est...@chromium.org, Oct 29 2016

Owner: tbuck...@chromium.org
I think it's wherever a new window would go

https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/ash/common/wm/window_cycle_list.cc?rcl=0&l=615
Should we change it to show Al+Tab previews where the currently active window is?
This is what it does now. The problem is that if you accidentally switch to a window on another display (but don't realize it), then the alt-tab preview window moves mysteriously.

It's easy to miss which window is active across multiple displays since the active/inactive difference is subtle.


I think our options for showing the Alt+Tab UI are:
1) Active display (current behavior; similar to Mac behavior, which uses whichever display the Dock most recently showed on)
2) Primary display (Windows behavior)
3) All displays

#2 & #3 are more predictable than #1, but both have downsides. With #2 it could be far away from the screen you are currently using, and with #3 you have UI popping up on other screens which could be distracting. If we do decide to move away from using the currently active display, #3 seems preferable to me.

Alternatively, we could try to improve our heuristics for guessing the active display, but it seems difficult to beat window focus.

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