TabLift for Mac

When you use Cmd+Tab or Cmd+` on macOS, minimized windows are ignored by default. You can bypass this by holding down Option after selecting the window and then letting go of Cmd, but it’s a needlessly complex procedure.

TabLift makes things much more straightforward. Any window, whether it’s minimized or not, can be brought up when switching between apps or windows. It just runs in the background and takes care of everything.

Easily switch to minimized apps. Once the app is running, using ⌘+Tab or ⌘+` to switch between apps or windows works with minimized windows as well. They will be brought up like any other window, though the minimize effect will still be played, so it’s not quite instant.

By default, all of an app’s minimized windows are restored, but you can toggle this functionality from the menu bar if you wish only the last minimized window to be affected.

Runs in the menu bar or just in the background. You can find the app in the menu bar after launching, where you can change the minimize behavior and access the app’s settings. After configuring it, you can hide the app from the menu bar completely and let it launch automatically at login.

TabLift is written in Swift and is very lightweight, so it’s not going to have much of a resource impact.

It just makes more sense if minimized windows weren’t displayed in the Cmd+Tab interface at all; Apple’s thinking would be logical. As it stands, though, it just makes things confusing by outright ignoring them even though they appear in the selection dialog.

TabLift should also help if you’re switching over from Windows and are used to minimized apps being treated like any other window when Alt-tabbing. It’s not necessarily for everyone, but it will help a lot if you tend to minimize apps instead of hiding them.