Switch It Easy — Instant Window Switcher for VS Code

Stop wasting time hunting through your taskbar. Switch between VS Code windows with a single click, right from the editor title bar.

The Problem

You're a developer. You have 5, 6, maybe 8 VS Code windows open at once — one per project. Switching between them means Cmd+Tab through a wall of identical VS Code icons, squinting at tiny window titles, or digging through Mission Control. It's slow, frustrating, and breaks your flow.

The Solution

Switch It Easy puts colorful, distinct icons directly into your editor title bar — one per open window. Each window gets its own unique color. The current window glows with a solid fill. Other windows appear as subtle outlines. Click any icon — boom, you're there. No menus. No keyboard shortcuts to memorize. No context switching overhead.

Features

• Up to 10 windows displayed as color-coded icons in the editor title bar
• One-click switching — click an icon, instantly jump to that window
• Visual current window indicator — solid filled icon for the active window, subtle outlines for others
• Alphabetically sorted by workspace name — consistent order across all your windows
• Blazing fast — native Swift binary for window discovery (~90ms) and switching (~150ms)
• Auto-refresh — window list updates every 5 seconds and on window focus
• Works everywhere — VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and other Electron-based editors
• 10 unique colors from the One Dark palette — red, yellow, blue, green, purple, cyan, orange, dark red, bright blue, silver

How It Works

1. Install the extension
2. Grant Accessibility permission to your editor (macOS will prompt you)
3. Open multiple VS Code windows — colored icons appear automatically in the editor title bar
4. Click any icon to switch to that window instantly

That's it. No configuration needed. No settings to tweak. It just works.

Why Switch It Easy?

Requirements

• macOS (uses native macOS Accessibility API — no Windows/Linux support yet)
• Accessibility permission — grant it to VS Code / Cursor in: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility

Commands

Windows are also auto-refreshed every 5 seconds and whenever your window regains focus.

Technical Details

Under the hood, Switch It Easy uses a precompiled Swift binary that talks directly to the macOS Accessibility API (AXUIElement). This means:

• No AppleScript overhead — direct native API calls
• Window discovery in ~90ms — lists all open editor windows by PID and title
• Window switching in ~150ms — raises the target window by index, no title matching needed
• Zero runtime dependencies — the binary is bundled with the extension

FAQ

Q: Why macOS only? A: Window management APIs are platform-specific. macOS provides the Accessibility API which allows reliable window discovery and switching. Windows and Linux support may come in future versions.

Q: Why do I need Accessibility permission? A: The extension needs to read window titles and switch focus between windows. macOS requires explicit user consent for this through Accessibility permissions.

Q: Does it work with Cursor / Windsurf? A: Yes! It works with any Electron-based code editor — VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and others.

Q: What if I have more than 10 windows? A: The extension displays up to 10 windows. They're sorted alphabetically by workspace name, so the first 10 in alphabetical order are shown.

Q: Will it slow down my editor? A: No. The window discovery runs in a background process and takes ~90ms. The 5-second polling interval has negligible performance impact.

Contributing

Found a bug? Have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub.

License

MIT — use it, fork it, make it yours.