Cover Switch 2

Cover Switch 2 is a Plasma 6 Alt+Tab task switcher with a GNOME-style cover-flow layout, panel-aware geometry, a frosted blurred backdrop, open morph animation, cyclic wrap navigation, and an optional zoom-in activation effect.

Unlike the stock Cover Switch, the panel/taskbar stays visible during Alt+Tab, with no black edges on multi-monitor or extended-display setups, and the wallpaper is softly blurred behind the cards. It also wraps cyclically — once you reach the last window it loops straight back to the first (and vice versa) with a quick snap, instead of stopping dead at the end like the stock switcher. A side-by-side comparison clip is in media/coverswitch2-comparison.mp4.

It is split into two KDE packages:

• coverswitch2: KWin task switcher layout (KWin/WindowSwitcher)
• coverswitch2-zoom-in: optional KWin effect for the selected-window zoom-in (KWin/Effect)

Install both packages for the full animation.

Status

Tested locally on:

• KDE Plasma 6.6.5
• KWin Wayland
• CachyOS
• 2560x1440 external display at 144 Hz

Quick install (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/dcrey7/coverswitch2.git
cd coverswitch2
./install.sh

install.sh installs both packages, sets Cover Switch 2 as your Alt+Tab layout, enables the zoom-in effect, and reloads KWin. It is idempotent, so you can re-run it after an update. To remove everything cleanly (and restore the default Alt+Tab switcher):

./uninstall.sh

Manual install (alternative)

kpackagetool6 --type KWin/WindowSwitcher --install packages/coverswitch2
kpackagetool6 --type KWin/Effect --install packages/coverswitch2-zoom-in

kwriteconfig6 --file kwinrc --group TabBox --key LayoutName coverswitch2
kwriteconfig6 --file kwinrc --group Plugins --key coverswitch2-zoom-inEnabled --type bool true

qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin reconfigure
qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /Effects org.kde.kwin.Effects.loadEffect coverswitch2-zoom-in

Then log out and back in if the task switcher does not appear immediately in System Settings.

Package Release Archives

Create KDE Store upload archives:

scripts/package-release.sh 1.0.0

This creates:

• dist/coverswitch2-1.0.0.tar.gz
• dist/coverswitch2-zoom-in-1.0.0.tar.gz

Upload coverswitch2 to the KDE Store category KWin (Plasma 6) -> Kwin Switching Layouts.

Upload coverswitch2-zoom-in to the KDE Store category KWin (Plasma 6) -> KWin Effects.

Debugging

Useful logs:

journalctl --user -b 0 -g 'kwin.*qml|coverswitch2|tabbox' | tail -80

Both packages keep verbose debug logging disabled by default.

Attribution

The task switcher is based on the Cover Switch QML rewrite by Ismael Asensio and has been modified for Plasma 6 with panel-aware geometry and additional animations by dcrey7.

Issues / contact

Found a bug or have a question? Open an issue on this repo, or email abhishek01789@gmail.com.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later.