This may or may-not help you, but I use what used to be called “Exposé” in OSX. Its been merged with “Mission Control” now, but serves the same needs. It allows me to use gestures (a 3 finger swipe) on my trackpad to jump between different spaces (desktops), all items open in the currently focused app, as well as all items open on the OS. This makes working on a laptop much easier, imo.
Im sure Windows has some built in feature that exposes all the windows/items open in an app. And if not, I know there will be 3rd party apps.
Again, I dont know if this will help, but its how I manage to deal with focusing windows/apps/plug-ins. Good luck!