Keyboard shortcut to switch to the last used window?

piotr_dobrogost · February 19, 2026, 9:21am

Is there a way to configure a keyboard shortcut to switch to (focus) the last used window?
The idea is to have a quick way to switch between two windows back and forth.

Ryan_G · February 19, 2026, 10:19am

just a quick succession of the above keys would do it. i.e. don’t keep holding the meta key. if you keep holding the meta key, the app switcher will be kept on screen. as soon as you let go of the meta key, it switches to the previous window.

i know it’s not that obvious. i had to look this one up myself.

gnome handles it differently if i remember correctly.

piotr_dobrogost · February 19, 2026, 12:35pm

Thanks!
That’s not obvious indeed.
This should be really advertised in some way.

However, the fact that holding the key/keys for a bit too long activates the application switcher is not good when all I want is to switch windows. This suggests there should be a separate keyboard shortcut for switching to the last used window.

There’s KDE bug looking for this feature:

kdeuser3830 · February 19, 2026, 4:16pm

Here is F3 mapped to something(sorry its in french) that just shows me the last used tab. then I remapped F3 via keyd for capslock to be used to switch back and forth to the 2 last switched app.(because kde don’t allow capslock remap), F1 is also a good choice for last used app.

In french it is call

cwo · February 20, 2026, 7:26am

System Settings > Task switcher.

Tab alternative (or Main if you don’t want to keep the regular way around).

Uncheck the second entry (the one that’s a Combobox/dropdown selector).

Choose the shortcuts as you like.

piotr_dobrogost · February 20, 2026, 1:27pm

Thanks.
I believe this is “Walk Through Windows Alternative” but the standard behavior of this feature is not what I want as I tried to describe in my answer to @Ryan_G.

piotr_dobrogost · February 20, 2026, 3:09pm

Thanks!
This was only a partial improvement, as keeping the base key from the shortcut (Meta in my case) pressed hid all windows besides the active one, which is something I do not want.
However, unchecking “Show selected window” disables this unwanted effect, and I got what I needed – plain switching of the active window without any visual effects.

In addition I would add that all keyboard shortcuts listed on this screen are named “Walk Trought Windows…” in the Keyboard/Shortcuts/Window Management:

It would be good if the connection between these two places was somehow made clear.