ALT+TAB to switch apps no longer works.

[JRS]

On my home PC, pressing ALT+TAB no longer allows me to switch apps. To quote
another user on the net, "When I press Alt-Tab i can catch a small glimpse of
the window that is supposed to appear but it vanishes almost immediately then
windows swaps me to the last window I was on." Here's some other clues....

1. It is not a problem with my keyboard or with the ALT key getting stuck.
I have a basic USB keyboard from DELL with no special drivers or applet
software for it installed. It's been working fine for months.

2. If I term-serve (remote desktop) into another PC, ATL+TAB works fine on
the remote pc.

3. The problem persists with all accounts on my pc. I tried creating a new
account to see if the issue would go away. No such luck.

3. If I boot into "safe mode", the problem goes away. ALT+TAB works fine.

4. If I kill explorer.exe from the Task Manager, the problem also goes away.
Restarting explorer.exe makes the problem come back. I'm wondering if there
some bug in the Windows Shell that's misprocessing keyboard messages.

5. If I hold down both ALT keys, then release one ATL key, pressing TAB
results in expected behavior of allowing me to switch apps. But the problem
comes back again when I try the normal sequence of ALT and TAB with my left
hand.

6. The problem started after I bought a new video card (Nvidia 6600), a new
video game, and some tax software. Last weekend I installed Turbo Tax, The
Orange Box (Portal, Halflife), and a new NVidia 6600 PCI card. I downloaded
the latest NVidia drivers. While I had Aero running with the new card, there
were lots of other problems. So I uninstalled the card, the drivers, and the
video card. I left the turbo tax on there. Now back to running on my Intel
915 inbox video, but now with no Aero. (The problem repro'd when Aero was up
too). I just uninstalled Turbo Tax. No luck getting rid of the issue.

Still can't ALT+TAB to switch apps. It's driving me crazy.

HELP!!!

jrs

 

[JRS]

I figured it out... just need to switch the Windows Theme back and forth....

Here's my solution in case anyone else stumbles across the same problem....

Right click on an on area of your desktop and select "Personalize".
From the Personalization window, select "Theme".
From the Theme select dialog, switch your Theme from "Windows Vista" to
"Windows Classic" and click OK.
At this point, the windows display will change to the dull looking windows
theme. But you'll discover that ALT+TAB is working again.

Repeat the steps above again and switch back to "Windows Theme" and you'll
have the nice looking display and ALT+TAB should still be working ok.

It's like switching the "Theme" back an forth unsets whatever was broken in
the shell.

Don't ask how I figured this out... let me know if this fixes the problem as
well.

 

[DP]

Do you have to go through this every time you turn your computer on? Or
does the fix you describe below fix it forever after you've done it once?

 

[JRS]

It appears to have fixed the problem for good. I tried rebooting and logging
on/off a few times. Everything seems fine now.

Are you going write a KB article for this David?