Powertoys: [FancyZones] faster layout switch, how it should work

[DavidGretzschel]

Multiple profiles would be much more useful, if one can switch between in less than a second using only the keyboard.
At the moment it's impossible.
How this should work from the users perspective:

press ctrl+` and the window opens up instantly.

At my very powerful gaming-machine it takes about half a second. That's too slow.
Probably because of the dimming and rendering of the position windows in the background.
But the dimming and the windows are not necessary, unless you're editing zones.
The picture below each layout-title already gives you that information.
So please drop it, so that it can open faster.

Now I should be able to immediately change the elment focus/blue outlines using my arrow keys, wasd or "jkl;". And then I should be able to press enter and with that immediately change to that layout and close the window and go back to work.

At the moment I have to grab my mouse to select a profile. I cannot confirm my selection using the keyboard and when I try to use tabs and then arrow-keys for selection, I end up focussing the "delete"-icon, which I definitely don't need to access that quickly.
Deleting a layout is something rarely done and is done with some consideration, changing a layout is very often done and should be so fast, that the user will be able to do it subconsciously without giving it any thought.

[ogKamy]

@DavidGretzschel Hey David, I'm currently working on a feature to implement Hotkeys for FancyZone layouts, and would love to get your feedback! If you're interested, please fill out this form.

Feedback from anyone else who would appreciate such a feature is welcome as well.

[DavidGretzschel]

@ogKamy
Great to hear, that this is coming!

I filled out the form.
Over the last six months I've been using a variety of different monitor setups.
But now I think I've finally found something that works really well. So now I don't really care if a shortcut for layout-switching would follow the mouse cursor or the active window (to determin which monitor it affects), since I think I'll stick with a single 32:9 monitor setup forever. (I will upgrade from 3840x1080 to 5120x1440 once the renting period for my current monitor is over)

However, when I had multiple monitors, I was writing a wall of text about it being better to have it follow the active window instead: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/1563

[DavidGretzschel]

Another thing I forgot to mention in the form:
Speed is the most important feature for such a shortcut.
A switch-time after shortcut press of two seconds would be..... okish, but unfortunate.
Make it a quarter second (with or if necessary for speed without a quick Zone-flash) and it could be quite magical in conjunction with the "Windows stay in their Zones"-setting.
Imagine going thru 5 Layouts in a couple seconds to quickly see how to best view your 6 open windows.
I think the best thing about a shortcut would be, that it avoids the drag of the Layout-window and the slow overlay dimming effect.

[ogKamy]

Speed is the most important feature for such a shortcut.

We're on the same page. I have also seen multiple people recommend we keep the "focus on active window" instead, so this is noted. Your feedback was immensely helpful, thank you.

[crutkas]

going to make hotkeys tracking issue #1411