EVE Client Switcher (Quick-Switch between EVE windows with hotkey)

This is an update on my original thread in the old forums. Nothing has changed in regards of the tool itself but I noticed the download link is dead and I can’t update it there.

Hi,

I’ve written a small tool for conveniently switching between or minimizing EVE client windows.
It also helps reducing the CPU-/GPU-Load.
See description below for further details.

Download link:
EVE Client Switcher

ReadMe:

EVE Client Switcher

created by Laurinius

1 - About EVE Client Switcher

EVE Client Switcher lets you switch between your EVE client windows or minimize all client windows at once with simple hotkeys.
It was designed for being used with clients running in “Fixed Window” mode and provides two advantages over e.g. using “Alt-Tab”:

a) Performance
When you use “Alt-Tab” the old window does not get minimized and stays in the background but active, which has an impact on performance (CPU-/GPU-Load).

Even more I found some glitches with “Fixed Window” windows not being minimized the right way when using for example the “Show Desktop” button in the taskbar.
This leads to each client looking like they are minimized, but are putting an entire core of your CPU under full load (more CPU load than if they where active).

EVE Client Switcher minimizes the other windows when switching to the next one or with the second hotkey minimizes all of them.
The windows minimized through EVE Client Switcher are minimized and “de-focused” correctly, so the CPU-/GPU-Load is minimized as well.

b) Convenience
With EVE Client Switcher you switch directly between EVE clients or minimize all EVE clients without having to deal with the windows of other applications.

2 - Requirements

  • EVE clients running in “Fixed Window” or “Window Mode” (designed for “Fixed Window”)
  • Windows 7/8/10
  • .NET Framework is required

3 - Usage

Just start the Program, no installation needed.
It will start directly minimized to the tray, where you can either right-click for a menu or double-click to open the settings directly.

In the settings you can define two hotkey, one for switching between EVE client windows and one for minimizing all EVE client windows.
The default is ALT+SHIFT+S for switching and ALT+SHIFT+X for minimizing.
If you click the “Set & Save” button it registers your choices and saves them in “ecs.dat” at the location of the exe-file.

Minimizing the settings window will set it back to the tray, closing it will close the program as well.

4 - Notes

This tool does in no way modify or manipulate the EVE client.
It uses functions provided by Windows for changing window states (like minimizing, restoring, focusing).

Some pictures of the tool’s GUI:
Tray icon
Tray icon menu
Setings screen (with remarks)

2 Likes

Nice tool, working as intended, improving the performance between the clients and its very handy.

Properly minimizing of the windows helps the graphic-card‘s buffer not to overflow (i have always that problem when switching the clients through Win-functions).
And the option to minimize all the clients at once really very usefull, in Win-10 i had always the same problem, not possible to minimize „Fixed Windows“ - when the client is running i cant go back to desktop!

One suggestion, let the user to choose the keys by „pressing a key“ instead of a predefined key-list, there are too many other unused keys on the keyboard :slight_smile:

TY :slight_smile:

I’ll look into this. But first I’ll have to find the old source code, which I’m not sure where I’ve hidden it :roll_eyes:

1 Like

@Ganellon_Devians I implemented your suggestion and it seems to work fine, you can download it here: https://github.com/laurinius/eve-client-switcher/releases/tag/v1.1-beta.1.
Can’t guarantee that it works with every special key on the keyboard and I would stay away from system hotkeys like Alt-F4.
Also you cannot enter a hotkey into the input field that is currently active as a hotkey, because it gets directly caught as a global hotkey. That’s why I added a reset button to reset the input fields to the currently active hotkeys.

1 Like

Great! Its working perfectly.
Many thanks! :slightly_smiling_face::+1:

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