--- title: "FAQ" description: "Permissions, ⌘Tab recovery, Secure Input, keyboard layouts, licences and compatibility — the questions people ask before and after installing Panehop." url: "https://panehop.com/faq" lang: "en" markdown: "https://panehop.com/faq.md" llms: "https://panehop.com/llms.txt" --- # FAQ Permissions, ⌘Tab recovery, Secure Input, keyboard layouts, licences and compatibility — the questions people ask before and after installing Panehop. ## Permissions and privacy ### Why does Panehop need the Accessibility permission? It is how a Mac app reads the list of other apps' windows and their titles, and how it gives one of them keyboard focus. There is no other supported way to do that. It never requests Screen Recording, because it shows icons and titles rather than screenshots. One feature asks for one more thing: Fast Search reads the characters you type while holding its trigger through an event tap, which macOS gates behind the Input Monitoring permission — Panehop asks for it only when you use Fast Search, and everything else works without it. ### Will it ask for Screen Recording later? Only if you turn on window thumbnails, a planned optional feature that is off by default. Without thumbnails there is no capture of your screen and no monthly re-authorisation prompt. ### What does the app send over the network? An update check, and a licence check when you activate. No analytics, no crash reports without your say-so, no window titles ever leave your Mac. The privacy policy says exactly this. ## ⌘Tab ### How does Panehop take over ⌘Tab? With your consent during onboarding, it disables the system app switcher's ⌘Tab shortcut and listens for the chord itself. You can keep the system switcher and use a different chord instead — every switcher's activate key is remappable. ### Panehop quit or crashed and ⌘Tab does nothing. What now? Launch Panehop again — on every launch it re-asserts the correct state, and its exit paths restore the system shortcut. If you removed the app: System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Keyboard, and enable “Move focus to next window” and the app switcher entries. You are never left without a switcher for longer than a relaunch. ### Quick ⌘Tab presses flash the panel. They should not: there is a short show delay (about 150 ms, adjustable) so a quick app-flip never draws the panel. If you still see a flash, raise the delay in Settings → Command-Tab. ## Search ### Fast Search stopped responding. Some app has enabled Secure Input — usually a password field, sometimes a terminal or password manager that forgot to turn it off. Panehop shows a warning in the menu bar naming the app and offering to quit it. ⌃Space search keeps working under Secure Input; only the hold-modifier Fast Search cannot. ### Can I use Caps Lock as the Fast Search trigger? Yes: first remap Caps Lock to Escape in System Settings → Keyboard → Modifier Keys, then pick Caps Lock in Panehop's search settings. Panehop never fights the Caps Lock light itself. ### Does search work with Japanese, Chinese or Korean input? ⌃Space search uses a real text field, so input methods and composition work as they do everywhere else on your Mac. Fast Search reads raw keystrokes while the modifier is held and cannot compose — use ⌃Space for CJK queries. ### A window on another Space is missing from the list. Windows on Spaces you have not visited since Panehop launched may appear only after you visit that Space once; minimised windows after you unminimise them once. This is how macOS exposes them. ## Buying and licences ### How does the trial work? Every feature, for 14 days, no account and no card. When it ends the switcher pauses and your settings stay; buying a licence turns it back on in one click. ### How many Macs can I use one licence on? All of yours. A licence is per person, not per machine. ### Can my company buy Panehop? Yes. Checkout is handled by Stripe as merchant of record and works for individuals and businesses alike: choose a business purchase, enter the company details and VAT ID, and reverse charge is applied where it should be. You receive a proper invoice for your books, and the licence works the same way. ### Are updates included? Every 1.x release is included in the one-time price. A future 2.0 would be a paid upgrade with a discount for existing customers. ### I lost my licence key. Enter the email you bought with on the licence page and the same key is sent again — nothing changes on your licence. It also arrived right after purchase in an email from Panehop, separate from the Stripe receipt. ### Why does my card statement say LINK.COM? Panehop is sold through Link, Stripe's merchant of record, which handles VAT and sales tax in more than 80 countries so we never have to. Your statement shows LINK.COM followed by Panehop, and your receipt and invoice come from Stripe. ### Can I get a refund? Yes — write to support within 14 days of purchase and say it was not for you. No form to fill in. ### Why isn't Panehop on the Mac App Store? App Store apps run in a sandbox that cannot read other apps' windows. A window switcher is impossible there, which is why none of them are. Panehop is signed with a Developer ID and notarised by Apple, so Gatekeeper checks it the same way. ## Compatibility ### Which Macs and macOS versions? macOS 14 Sonoma or later — 15 Sequoia and 26 Tahoe included — on Apple silicon and Intel. One universal download. ### Does it work with Stage Manager and full-screen apps? Full-screen windows are listed and reachable. Stage Manager works for switching; a few of its arrangement corners are documented as unsupported rather than half-working. ### Will a macOS beta break it? Each summer's beta cycle is budgeted for. Where Panehop relies on system behaviour that Apple changes, the affected feature degrades rather than the app crashing — and a fix ships as an update.