Windows Vista Win Tab, Alt Tab
Before I got Vista I saw the demos of the Win+Tab cascading windows shuffle effect and thought that I would never use such a flashy and pointless feature. I've never had any issues with Alt+Tab.
Microsoft, in my opinion, have completely ruined Alt+Tab in Vista. It's now useless. They replaced the icons with very small screen shots of the window - this means that I can no longer see what window it is and have to read the text above. Win+Tab however, has proved incredibly useful. My main reason for doubting it is that you can't see the windows behind very well, but this doesn't seem to make much difference. Perhaps when Alt+Tabbing we're really only looking at the next icon, you can't skip ahead anyway - so knowing what's coming up next isn't really important.
If I had one feature request for Vista it would be to promote the small icons next to the screen shots on Alt+Tab up to full 128x128 icons in place of the screen shot that's too small to see anyway.
Although very nice to see the desktop being treated as a window - I've not been using Win+D/M as much as I usually do.
Alt+Tab in Vista
Win+Tab in Vista
Comments
June 14, 2006 6:41 PM
Interesting stuff. Notice how the alt+tab looks identical to minimised windows on OS X? They're also hard to decypher sometimes, and I find Apple+tab or Expose to be far more efficient. That said, when items are minimised in OS X, you do have to roll your mouse over them anyway in order to restore them, so I guess you'll see the window titles then anyway. I'm waiting for your next big post: Vista vs. OS X!
November 9, 2006 11:49 PM
Matt,
Regarding your ONE feature request in Vista...
- Create the following registry key...
\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTab
Within that the following DWORD keys control various things.
OverlayIconPx OverlayIconDXPx OverlayIconDYPx ThumbSpacingXPx ThumbSpacingYPx
SideMarginPx,
BottomMarginPx,
If you are still not satisfied,
Create a DWORD called "AltTabSettings" in \HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer and set it to 1. This will get you back your beloved classic (and super zippy) Windows XP AltTab.
November 9, 2006 11:52 PM
Forgot to mention something about the comment above.
DISCLAIMER: All these regkeys are NOT guaranteed to work and can cause undesired layout issues with AltTab. They are undocumented and most importantly UNSUPPORTED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. If at any point, you want to revert to the original settings, just delete the Regkeys you created for these.
February 11, 2007 1:58 PM
Couldn't agree more with Matt. Thank you, BehindVista. The "AltTabSettings" did the trick. I now have my good'ol alt+tab and my Win+Tab, if I need window previews of a reasonable size.
November 21, 2007 5:21 AM
Alternatively, for those frightened of the registry, they can:
*press & hold the Windows key and then press the pause/break key,
*Then in the window that pops up, click "Advanced system settings" in the bar to the left,
*Continue through UAC,
*Choose "Advanced" tab,
*Choose "Settings" for Performance,
*Uncheck "Enable Desktop Composition,"
*And finally, okay through those windows.
It takes away the transparent glass, but it seems most effects are still there, if you enjoy the "pretty" Vista offers.
Plus, it gets rid of the annoying thumbnail images in alt-tab, making them just the tiny icons like in XP.
PS: Oranges aren't ALWAYS orange. ;)
November 21, 2007 8:21 PM
Also, one more thing ... for those of us who don't like to think when doing things like this, you may want to point out that HKCU is actually "HKEY_CURRENT_USER"
Then again, I guess if someone can't figure that out, they don't have any business editing the registry. :P
November 21, 2007 8:36 PM
ONE more thing, now that I've actually applied BehindVista's second option to get my XP-style alt-tab back ... how does Vista know what you are asking it to do when you create that Dword & change the value to 1?
I don't think this notifies people of new posts, so if you have an answer, could you please email it to me?
My email is on my site ...
ck /dot/ podzone /dot/ net
February 9, 2008 12:05 PM
Is there a way to remove "Desktop" from the alt + Tab menu.
Because i use Win+D/M and not the stupid alt + Tab
April 6, 2008 10:08 PM
Help! Vista on Dell 1501 Inspiron. ALT+TAB does not work in Aero or Classic. Symptom: tab list pops up, disappears in a second. If you manage to alt_tab to a different icon or picture it may or may not switch to that application. No behavior difference in classic or aero interface.
April 21, 2008 4:57 AM
jeroen, creating the DWORD value (AltTabSettings) as suggested by BehindVista will revert the alt+tab menu back to how it was before Vista. Effectively removing Desktop as well.
June 14, 2008 8:55 PM
Did Bill Malthouse ever find an answer? I have the same problem, also on an Inspiron 1501.
August 5, 2008 1:22 PM
Bill Malthouse; Tom C:
I have the same problem too, on an inspiron 1501, too :/
October 26, 2008 8:28 PM
I also have an Inspiron 1501 that had the same problem. You need to flash your BIOS to the latest version 2.6.3. Then you need to remove the laptop battery and hold the power button down for a few seconds, with the adapter still plugged in, then without it plugged in.
You should also unplug the adapter in the middle (where it connects to the box) and leave it for a minute or so, then plug it back in.
I think the cause of the problem is a static build up. It repeatedly sends the keypress e0_0d which interrupts things like alt-tab.
Hope I helped :)
November 11, 2008 8:18 PM
Cat, that was so helpful it's not even funny. Running XP on a 1501 and couldn't figure out why the screensaver and Alt-Tab weren't working... Thank you!
December 9, 2008 2:42 AM
Anyone know how to get ALT+TAB in vista to switch between the most recently used windows? It used to be that when I pressed ALT+TAB, it went to another window...and if I pressed it again, it went back to the windows I just came from. Now, when I press ALT+TAB from a window, it goes to the next one in the ALT list...and if I press it again, it just goes to the next one and so on and so forth, making ALT+TAB alot less useful to me for immediate switching back and forth from just two windows I use alot, regardless of how many I have open.
April 27, 2009 7:50 PM
I just wanted to mention that I just implemented the AltTabSettings Registry code to my Vista laptop and am SO glad it worked well. Thanks for the tip! Those tiny screenshots just slowed me down before...
May 29, 2009 10:32 PM
Chris -
Your alternative actually turns off all the cool effects in windows vista - including the transparency and the fade-in window popups, and everything else. I am going to instead try the registry change now and hopefully it will *only* affect the alt tab icons. I like the other effects.