Run: Focus / bring to top a program when it's already open

[Ariane-B]

Currently, if a program is already running when I ask Run for it, it'll do nothing. I wish it'd bring it to the front and focus it so I can find it.

That way, I can use Run as a way to "goto" any program, whether it's open or not.

[saahmedm]

Doesn't the window walker plug-in incorporated into PT Run do this? I've attached an image, clicking the final result would result in Run bringing outlook into focus

[Ariane-B]

Yes, it does! Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

But it's the last result, which I would probably not even have tried. It's a colorless icon and it says ".exe"; intuitively speaking that would've made me think it was a file, a process to inspect or something... anyway, an option I had no business picking if I was just trying to "goto" a program.

I think there should be a way to adjust things so bringing the currently running app into focus would be the first option. Maybe even group "app" results from a single app (all results that would execute a single app) into a single result with sub-options... and the settings would allow you to pick your default choice when you click the big thing or press Enter.

I'd also add a label to clarify what currently running window results will do. Something like "Bring to front".

I would also honestly make "bring to front" > "open new window if not already running" the default behaviour, because let's be honest... If I already have Firefox running, the most likely thing I want to do is find it, not open an additional window.

And why not, as a future improvement, make it so that you can customize that per program. For example, someone might want to bring most things to front when they find them with Run, but for Windows Terminal in particular, they'd want to open a new tab.

I just took a screenshot that might clarify why I got confused.

To open Firefox, originally, the current window wasn't even displayed. I had to increase the number of results from the default 4 to see it without scrolling. Also, the name of the tab displayed is the one that was in focus the first time I did the search. If I re-open Run with the same search cached, the tab's name doesn't change.

There's also a lot of "junk" (namely, shortcuts and files) that should definitely be lower in the results.

[saahmedm]

Yes, you're right. we're working on these issues soon. I think the following issues would be interesting for you to comment in, as we're tracking these very changes:

Closing as duplicate of #3169 and #3320