Windows 10: Alt + Tab in Windows 10 does not Toggle to Previous Screen

Previously Alt + Tab always went to the previous screen. It makes perfect sense as that is what it used to do. So Alt + Tab can toggle between two particular screens by always going to the previous screen. As mentioned, it has done that all the way through version 8.1

 

Does your issue have anything to do with Excel, or it is affecting the windows of other programs?

 

Well, it's never worked that way with me and I'm glad it doesn't. Yes, most of the time when I want to 'toggle' I want to toggle between 2 screens-but I don't want to be stuck with only those screens. If I want to toggle between 2 screens I'll use Alt+Tab for one direction & Alt+BackTab for the other.

 

What the heck is BackTab? No such key on any of my current or previous keyboards.

 

Backtab is Shift + Tab.

 

I have the same problem with quicken, if will cycle through but not open. I have to reopen it through task bar.

 

I had the same problem, drove me nuts. Fixed it using this:

Open Excel workbooks in separate windows and view them side by side - Microsoft 365 Blog

Just download and run the easy fix - it says it is for Windows 7 but it worked perfect for me in Windows 10

 

This fixed the problem for me. It was only Excel 2010 that had the quick Alt + Tab issue for me. Thanks!

 

I'm on 10586.14 and alt+tab works perfectly fine.

 

Hi,

Just want to update this tread with the following specifications.

OS: Windows 10 Enterprise
Office: Office Home and Business 2010

Backup your registry in the following folders before making any changes in the registry.

In the computer registry (regedit.exe),go to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\Command
Change the last values to include both /e and "%1". See below for the example(Default) REG_SZ "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"
command REG_MULTI_SZ "xb'BV5!!!!4!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>u2BeT,8X[=]9==,*)Nn] /e "%1"
Then rename ddexec to ddexec2, so it will not use the old folder. It will be like what is shown below:Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddexec2
Then should be done on Excel.Sheet.8 too, exactly the same as aboveComputer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\Command --> replace the last part with /e "%1"
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec --> rename to ddeexec2
Then try to open 2 Excel files and use Alt-Tab to toggle between the two applications.



Hope it helps,

 

I tried the registry fix and it didn't work. Any other ideas?

 

You guys got it all wrong. Here is how to replicate the problem.

1) Open Windows Explorer and browse to a folder with multiple word documents.
2) Open a word document
3) Alt + Tab back to Windows Explorer (correct behavior)
4) Open a second word document
5) Alt + Tab now switches between word documents...NO!!! It should switch back to Windows Explorer.

If I click on Windows Explorer then Alt + Tab it resumes the old style behavior and will continue to switch between the Word document and the Windows Explorer window...It's like the OS say..."Oh? You actually want to switch between the folder and the file? Well ok...here you go."

This only seems to happen with office documents. I'm currently using office 365 but it's been happening for several versions. I've confirmed with both Word and Excel. But notepad for example isn't a problem.

A fix for this would be awesome

 

You are correct in replicating the problem.

I feel your pain since I've been a keyboard/key-combo user since 95.

This behavior has been happening since Office 2010 or 2014. I don't remember which. Prior to one of those, when an Office program was opened, one couldn't start a "second instance" of that program. You could open up another file of that program, but there would be thumbnails of each file that stacked up in the Taskbar using the same icon. One could still use Alt/Tab to switch, but if you closed Office altogether it would close all of them. It was quite confusing to a novice user.

Therefore I believe the fix they used is to stack the individual file's thumbnail on the Taskbar. It's similar to opening a second instance. Now one can individually close out a file without closing Office altogether. I understand your problem, but I think once an Office program is opened they want that to be the focus over other programs because it's such a popular program.

The only work-around I know of is to hit Alt/Tab to show the switcher, then keep holding Alt, then wave your mouse curser over and click the thumbnail you want. This is somewhat similar to Peek.

Hope that explains things and helps.

 

Using Alt + Tab I am getting very erratic switching of windows in Windows 10, and this just started recently. Some windows refuse to appear when I shift directly to them. Then I can click 3 tabs ahead, then back to the desired window, then it will appear, etc. I tried re-booting to no avail. Sometimes I can switch to MS apps, sometimes I can't. I don't see a pattern.
I can toggle to the window and expand and navigate it, but it does not display at the top level.
Mouse-Clicking on the corner of an exposed window tile does not necessarily bring it to the surface, either.
Feeling frustrated and ignorant.

 

I don't remember where I found it, but if you turn off the preview pane in Windows Explorer it fixes the problem (once you have applied the fix to open in separate windows). However, even that's no longer working for me. But give it a try and see if that works for you.