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When you run more than 6 applications on Windows 7 and you press alt-TAB, icons representing the first 6 applications and the desktop appear on the first row of the grid and you can cycle with alt-TAB-TAB... through the 6 most recently used windows the usual way, but the 7th and other less recently used windows don't follow the same rules. Instead they get grouped together according to their application but disregarding whether they were recently used or not. This new behavior is mentioned here.

I am very used to the old way of cycling and the new system is driving me crazy. I tend to have 20 or so windows open at one time and I frequently need to alt-tab to the 7th or 8th window on the stack but it doesn't work the same anymore.

Does anyone know how to put back the old behavior, so that alt-tab-tab-tab... goes through the whole list in most-recent to least-recent order?

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8 Answers

up vote 22 down vote accepted

To restore the XP Alt-Tab functionality simply, lauch regedit, add a DWORD named AltTabSettings to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer and set its value to 1.

And here's a one line powershell script which does the above:

Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer AltTabSettings ([int]1)
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+1: Tested here, works like a charm without a reboot, nice one. – techie007 Feb 27 '10 at 20:08
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It worked! Thanks, accepted. Is there a way to turn off the weird W7 ordering without turning off the nice W7 large alt-Tab preview icons etc? That is, can I keep the W7 alt-tab interface but with the XP ordering? – Carlos A. Ibarra Mar 4 '10 at 19:16
worked here too, can't take the default behavior its not functional at all.. – Prozaker Aug 7 '10 at 0:07
+1 Oh, thank you so much for this! – Gunder Aug 11 '11 at 12:03
Thanks. But why this happens? Why explorer forget to switch windows with Alt+Tab? – Isaac Oct 12 '11 at 15:11
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up vote 18 down vote

Not sure about tab order but you can access the old Windows XP looking Alt-Tab like this:

  1. Hold down the left alt key

  2. Press and release the right alt key, keeping the left alt key held down

  3. Then, still keeping the left alt key held down, tab-tab-tab away to you heart's content...

alt text

Thanks to BlogSofts via The Road To Know Where

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Nice! I didn't know it could do that! But it's a PITA that you have to hit the right Alt then the left Alt for this to work. – Hondalex Feb 26 '10 at 22:55
You do get used to it after a while :) – Shevek Feb 27 '10 at 7:57
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Does anyone know how to make this the default behavior? I like that sooooo much better. – jimbojw Sep 30 '11 at 13:11
Add the "AltTabSettings" DWORD = 1 in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer" then it'll become the default behavior. – deddebme Apr 13 at 12:56
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up vote 9 down vote

While I tried, liked and upvoted the accepted answer I found this setting by googling a bit more: http://blog.grushin.com/2009/12/04/windows-7-bring-back-old-alttab-behavior-turn-off-aero-peek/

Turns out you can keep the W7 look but avoid the odd flashing behaviour (lack of better words) that is aero peek.

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Great tip! but I can't up-vote you because your answer doesn't seem to answer the original posters question. – jpierson May 13 '11 at 14:07
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I'm upvoting yours b/c you have added another piece to the puzzle of "making alt-tab work like it used to." Thanks - great nugget! – Steve Midgley Jul 12 '11 at 22:00
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up vote 2 down vote

Did you try the combination "Win + Tab". It uses the aero interface but give you a full cycle of your applications.

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Interesting, I always hated the Win + Tab switcher but it does seem to keep stack ordering so maybe I'll have to start giving it a try once again. – jpierson May 13 '11 at 14:10
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up vote 1 down vote

Here's a one line script which sets the registry value as described in the accepted post

Set-ItemProperty HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer AltTabSettings ([int]1)
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up vote 0 down vote

I'm not sure how to get it back but here is a program that might help ya: http://www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher/download.html. It changes the alt+tab so hopefully

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up vote 0 down vote

go through the menus as follows; System/Advanced system settings/Advanced/performance/visual effects

under 'custom'

untick the bottom option for visual settings. 'use visual styles on windows and buttons'

you lose some of the smooth graphics, but alt-tab behaves like just like it used to.

Sanity returns.

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Really? that seems like a strange relationship. Can anybody confirm this? – jpierson May 13 '11 at 14:08
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up vote 0 down vote

Chris's suggestion does work but it makes the windows ugly (right angles on the corners). Rather than clicking that box, up the list a bit is the Aero Peek option, unclick that and you keep the modern look and feel but ditch the fit-inducing flash when using Alt-Tab.

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