Windows 7 Alt-Tab Order

11Mar/1034

Windows 7 Alt-Tab Order

This has been bugging me for weeks. The absolute random order in which Windows 7 puts your windows when you're doing heavy alt-tab work between applications. It seems like most of the time it's exactly opposite of what you want; "This was not my idea!", it places the last application you worked on at the end of the list, with 20 windows open, this is a problem.

It all seems contrary to the behavior I've been used to over the years, so thanks to Google there is way of getting that original behavior back, and no I'm in no mood to research and try to learn the new, better way Windows 7 or what ever version it was introduced in wants me to us, simply for the fact that I gave it a couple months and it only brought me frustration. Thank you Michael (below) for your eloquence in starting the issue and posing the solution!

I've been nagged by a similar problem since I first installed Vista RC, and was fortunate enough to finally stumble across a solution today. I'll summarize both below.

THE PROBLEM

On Windows XP and it's predecessors (going back to 3.1, if memory serves) I use ALT+TAB to switch back-and-forth between two windows. For example, I often have two cmd.exe windows open - one for writing code (SQL, Python, batch file, etc.) and one for running the code. It's fast, easy, and by now reflexive, to quickly:

1. Edit code in one window
2. ALT+TAB to the second window
3. Run the new code, and watch it crash
4. ALT+TAB back to the first window and fix the problem
5. Repeat steps 1-4 all day long

I perform this simple workflow hundreds of times per day. I can work for tens-of-minutes at a time without ever taking my hands from the keyboard. I love my mouse, but when I'm coding or writing doc, its substantially more efficient for me to keep my hands on the keyboard and ALT+TAB between a few key windows.

Since moving to Windows Vista and Windows 7, the ALT+TAB behavior has been essentially useless for me, due to the seemingly random order in which windows appear. I've read the blog post that Shaon cited, and understand (though disagree with) why the ALT-TAB list works this way now. What I can't get over, however, is that I can't simply flip/flop between the two most recent windows, regardless of how the rest of the list is ordered.

So, for the past year or two (whenever it was that Vista RC was released), I've always had at least one XP machine available on my desktop. I've done all my coding and most of my documentation on an XP computer because ALT+TAB works predictably on that platform. Now, however, I'm getting ready to upgrade my last XP machine to Windows 7 and am dreading having to battle with Windows "helping" me by shuffling around the ALT+TAB list. Hence, my finally putting in the requisite time today to find a real solution.

THE SOLUTION

Fortunately, the solution turns out to be easy. You can restore the XP-style ALT+TAB behavior - even while preserving the cool new Vista/7 Flip3D behavior - by adding the following registry value:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTabSettings = 1

This gives you predictable, reliable ALT+TAB switching like XP, albeit with the loss of the cool looking big ALT+TAB icons that Vista/7 offer. Personally, I can live without the eye candy in order to work more effectively.

I credit and thank the following post for turning me on to this solution:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_there_any_way_how_to_remove_desktop_item_from_Win_Tab_or_Alt_Tab_switcher_of_Windows_Vista

I hope this helps someone else, too; it made my day.

-Michael

From: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/9133a3ef-6add-4d9a-a309-a2e7e15023ad

UPDATE: 3:55 PM 3/29/2010
Make sure to make it a DWORD as seen below:

Tagged as: alt-tab, Microsoft, tab order, Tech, Windows 7 Leave a comment

Comments (34) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Frank Paolino
March 25th, 2010 - 12:24

I thought it was just me and never bothered to look into this, but it was annoying. Thanks for the tip. BTW, make sure it is a DWORD, not String.
Yancy Lent
March 29th, 2010 - 15:57

Thank you Frank! I will update the post.
Michael Crick
May 8th, 2010 - 11:20

Thank you Lancy. It’s worse than you thought. On my Windows 7 PC Alt-Tab creates a selection area in the middle of the screen that won’t go away until you reboot. You have saved me a lot of grief.

As I footnote. I was one of the two people who put this feature into Windows in 1988(?) so I am happy to read that we designed it right. Too bad the current batch of Windows interface designers are not always up to it.
Leah Perez
May 9th, 2010 - 15:14

Windows Vista is good but it can hog your CPU and Memory…,
Jeff
May 23rd, 2010 - 02:55

Thanks for the Windows 7 “alt/tab” solution . That’s great. I updated to Windows 7 recently and was guessing that someone out in ‘net land had a solution for this one.

Now, if someone can tell me how to get my Epson 777 Inkjet printer to work with Windows 7…..I can’t load the Drivers in Windows 7. It appears that I may have to buy a new printer. Any ideas out there? I think my printer has USB 1.0 connectors but not certain.
Jeff
May 23rd, 2010 - 23:48

^^

“Now, if someone can tell me how to get my Epson 777 Inkjet printer to work with Windows 7…..I can’t load the Drivers in Windows 7. It appears that I may have to buy a new printer. Any ideas out there? I think my printer has USB 1.0 connectors but not certain.”

It’s working now. I don’t know why Windows didn’t automatically detect/download the Epson 777 Drivers at startup and after a couple of restarts but I went to the “Devices/Hardare” menu and told Windows to search for the proper drivers for the printer. It’s ok now.
The Unknown Computer User
June 10th, 2010 - 21:24

Aaahhhhh…. relief….
Philip
July 20th, 2010 - 20:19

Thanks very much for this workaround. I just moved to Windows 7 and found the tab order to be both hugely confusing and antithetical to my normal workflow. I look forward to rebooting and going back to my normal settings. Michael, you and your colleague definitely designed it right, at least for heavy users like me who like having lots of windows open.
Sencho
August 10th, 2010 - 22:01

Great !!! Good to see so many people disliking the “new” way. Thanks!
David Rios
August 13th, 2010 - 16:53

Great tip!!!
Jerry
August 17th, 2010 - 20:23

Thanks. This bothered me to no end.
sutt
September 29th, 2010 - 04:56

Hey Everyone,
nice tip! Does anyone know a solution to keep the “new-style” window (especially clickable-buttons inside the alt+tab-box) but bring back the “old-style” sort-order?

that would be the best of both worlds.

Thanks a bunch
Shez
October 26th, 2010 - 10:02

Hi all, thanks for the tip!

FYI, I found this post with the keywords “windows 7 alt-tab random” and it came top of the list.
Thisss-guy!
January 4th, 2011 - 01:53

As the first commenter, Frank, said “I thought it was just me”. Thanks a lot for the great tip. Am applying it to my desktop, notebook, net book and any other win 7 machine I frequent. Cheers
Stoffel
January 20th, 2011 - 02:09

I recently read about Cognitive Friction on http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/45989 which quotes:
“The term Cognitive Friction was first coined by Alan Cooper in a book he wrote back in 1999 called The Inmates Are Running The Asylum”.
This horrible default alt+tab implementation probably deserves a chapter by itself in the next book/edition. It will drive me up the wall. It is one of the reasons why I am considering to move to Linux.
Thanks for preserving the bit of sanity that I have left.
Kathryn
February 4th, 2011 - 12:03

Bless You- I was about to throw my pc against an oncoming train, pick up the pieces, and run them through a blender and then send them to microsoft to show them what I thought of the “new” alt tab.
RoddH
March 4th, 2011 - 13:55

Thanks. After 20 years of using Alt-TAB to switch between windows — there is no way that I could use the Win 7 implementation. Like the other users in this thread, I don’t even understand what Win 7 is doing.
Eric Holbrook
March 25th, 2011 - 14:41

This has been bugging me a lot lately. THANKS!
Stirlitz
April 29th, 2011 - 09:14

@Sutt

‘The best of both worlds’ would be to turn off ‘Enable Aero Peek’ option
(Control Panel->System and Security->System->Advanced system settings->Visual Effects tab)
Josh
May 10th, 2011 - 10:49

THANK YOU! Finally back to normal.
heliogabal
May 26th, 2011 - 16:47

What a relief! Thank You so much for this post. Not only it restores correct behavior, better yet – replaces unreadable miniatures with icons, while retaining all the rest of aero 3D bells and whistles. I’m a happy man now.
Philip
May 30th, 2011 - 22:59

Much, much better – thank you! I also tend to have lots of windows open at any given time – it was killing my productivity to suddenly lose track of them, and have to go hunting. Now I have control again. Thanks for sharing.
Ben
June 6th, 2011 - 23:39

Whew, thank you!
david
July 11th, 2011 - 16:58

Brilliant!
Jacob
July 21st, 2011 - 12:25

Thank you so much! It drove me crazy to hit alt tab and find the window I was using 30 seconds ago moved to the end of the list. I don’t even want to know what dumb *ss made that brilliant decision.
John
July 26th, 2011 - 13:47

Pure f’ing genius. Thanks!
AzP
August 4th, 2011 - 11:18

Thank you for this! It’s been driving me crazy for a year since I’m also a developer and am frequently alt+tab:ing between two windows.
denver it
August 8th, 2011 - 17:53

Nice post. I learn something more challenging on different blogs everyday. Thanks for sharing.
Shree
August 10th, 2011 - 04:00

Alt-Tab was creating a selection area in the right hand top of the screen. That portion of the screen will be not useable until you reboot. After following your instruction, the problem got fixed. Thank you so much for sharing
Jon
August 11th, 2011 - 15:45

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU
Dave
August 15th, 2011 - 10:46

I was bugged by this Alt-Tab behaviour as well. I was also annoyed by the aero-peek feature moving the alt-tab window behind the currently peeked window so that I could not see it. I tried turning OFF the aero-peek feature and was most suprised to find that not only did it turn off the aero-peek but it also put the alt-tab behaviour back to how XP does it. Now I have the best of both worlds. Result!
KeithInSac
August 29th, 2011 - 17:42

Many thanks. I’m an extremely heavy user of traditional alt-tab, Win7′s implementation has been killing me.
John G
September 8th, 2011 - 15:50

Awesome tip! Thank you so much!! I didn’t last as long as some of the patient souls that have posted. I’ve been using W7 for only a few weeks and was going INSANE having to Alt+Shift+Tab to get to the last accessed of the many windows I have open because it was inexplicably placed at the end of the list of open apps.

You know the old adage; “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Peter
September 19th, 2011 - 16:43

Regarding turning off “Aero Peek” — note that it doesn’t completely restore XP window sorting.

The most recent six windows (that is, the top row in the alt-tab box) *are* sorted most-recent-first. However, the remaining less-recently-used windows are grouped by application (e.g., all Windows Explorer windows together) and sorted alphabetically by window name.

I expect this works for most folks, but I find my ‘current working context’ often includes more than six windows, so this inconsistency makes alt-tab feel undependable, even with Aero Peek disabled.