This isn’t for everyone, but you can enable a mouse mode in Windows 7 or Vista where just hovering over a window with the mouse will switch to that window. In the old days, this used to be called the XWindows mode, and was enabled through TweakUI, but now it’s built right into Control Panel for everybody to use.

To turn this setting on, just type “mouse works” into the search box in the Control Panel, and you should see an item called “Change how your mouse works”.

In this screen, scroll down and find the checkbox for “Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse”.

That’s pretty much it. It’ll take a while to get used to the new mode… just remember, the mouse has to be hovered over top of any window to switch focus to it.

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Lowell is the founder and CEO of How-To Geek. He’s been running the show since creating the site back in 2006. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over 250 million people. Prior to starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in IT doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, and programming work.
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