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

edwar said:

When I get the chance I will boot up Win 10 again and check how Excel works with multiple windows open. But that might be a problem as I'm running Office 2000 in my VM of Win 10.

With the newer version of Office every time you open another document, spread sheet or Word Doc, it also opens a second instance of that program so the Alt + Tab feature works the same between open office documents and other programs. Use to be to switch between open docs/files of the same program you had to hit Ctrl + Tab.

OK, it looks like Alt+Tab is working as it used to with Excel but only if you've opened up a separate instance of Excel. If you're working in one Excel file and open a second from within that instance, then Windows 10 doesn't let you Alt+Tab out. Very strange considering that Windows 7 had no issue with this. Maybe a bug? Or something to compel users to buy Office 2013...?

In any case, I think I can use the workaround of opening separate instances of Excel. Thanks for all your help, everyone. I hope the OP's problem was similar and can be resolved too.

Alt + Shift + Tab allows u to go back a tab if more then 2 are open

Nerdlinger said:

I have the same problem as the OP, and the solution proposed by Voyager doesn't work for me.

What I would like to be able to do, and I think the OP would as well, is to be able to flip back and forth between two particular windows (even if more than two are open) simply using Alt+Tab as in Windows 7, without having to hold any buttons down and click a thumbnail or having to hit Tab more than once.

If anyone could help with this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.

Yes that is what I am trying to do

pchelp said:

What you're asking for doesn't make sense from a Windows perspective.
If you have more than two windows open how would Windows know which one you want to switch to? The only possibilities I can see are 1) tab thru all the open windows or 2) show you thumbnails & allow you to choose. Allowing you to choose the direction (e.g. via the registry mod) might help as you'd have to choose the 1st switch then Alt-Tab might return you. But I don't see the same keystroke as a toggle-again, how would Windows know what you wanted to do? Have you tried Alt-Shift-Tab? For me Alt-Tab takes me in one direction while Alt-Shift-Tab takes me the other.

For instance right now I have Firefox, Quicken, and Thunderbird open. Alt-Tab takes me from Firefox to Quicken. After switching back to Firefox (manually) I find that Alt-Shift-Tab takes me to Thunderbird. Therefore to toggle between Firefox & Quicken, starting in Firefox, I Alt-Tab to Quicken then Alt-Shift-Tab to Firefox. By using different keystrokes for different directions I explicitly tell Windows what I want it to do.

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

GoHawks7 said:

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?

GoHawks7 said:

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

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.

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

GoHawks7 said:

Since switching to Windows 10, Alt + Tab does not toggle to previous screen in a number of case, i.e. you have to hit Alt + Tab twice to go to the previous screen or go through the thumbnail screens. It sounds small but being able to toggle to the previous screen by hitting Alt + Tab saves me lots of time. I would appreciate any help someone can give me to return to the previous functionality of earlier Windows systems.

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

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2636670

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