The keyboard shortcut ALT+TAB is well known and often used. In case you didn’t know, the shortcut allows you to quickly switch between all your currently running applications visually. In XP, applications were shown by their icons; more recently in Vista the applications are depicted by small thumbnails of the actual process. Task switching is just something I do instinctively with ALT+TAB. If you are the same, and you are a heavy multi-tasker you are probably aware that the ALT+TAB dialog is limited to a certain number of columns and rows – 7 columns and 3 rows in Vista for example. What this means is that I am constrained to 21 running applications if I want to continue to use the task switch feature. Annoying, but also something I realize only affects a select few. If you are one such user you may be interested in knowing that it is possible to adjust this restriction.


alt-tab-vista-before

  1. Click Start and in the Start Search box type regedit.exe.
  2. Traverse the Registry Editor navigation tree on the left hand side down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

    3. regedit-task-switch_1

  3. You will notice two keys in the right-hand panel: CoolSwitchColumns and CoolSwitchRows. As you’ve probably realized by now, these two keys control the number of columns and rows for Windows ALT+TAB task switch aka CoolSwitch. Change the values by double-clicking on the key. I’ve set mine to columns 12 and left the rows to the default of 3.

    4. regedit-task-switch_2

  4. Lastly, this registry change requires you to restart your desktop session either by a Log Off or Restart.