Windows Vista - Window Focus - Alt + Tab Feature Tweaks

One of my favorite Vista features is their implementation of the Alt + Tab hotkey for switching window focus. Unlike Windows XP which would allow you to press Alt + Tab to cycle through your open windows. Windows Vista allows you to hold in Alt + Tab and then click on one of the displayed thumbnails to change focus.

Such a simple change, but with how often I use the hotkey to switch window focus. I find it much easier to hit the hotkey and quickly click on the window I want rather than cycling. My only problem with the feature is how small the icons are, especially on high resolution monitors. I found this great post which explains how to tweak this feature with a registry entry to make the displayed thumbnails any size you wish.

Save the following snippet to a text file with a .reg extension. Double-click the file you created to update your registry. This is optimized for my laptop's resolution of 1440X900, but feel free to tweak the settings for your resolution. You can tweak the size of each thumbnail, and the spacing between them...

(TIP:  Use a Hexadecimal Converter to get your values right. Like This One)

#### Snippet ####

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTab]
"OverlayIconPx"=dword:00000023
"OverlayIconDXPx"=dword:00000000
"OverlayIconDYPx"=dword:00000000
"ThumbSpacingXPx"=dword:00000004
"ThumbSpacingYPx"=dword:00000004
"SideMarginPx"=dword:00000004
"BottomMarginPx"=dword:0000000a
"MinThumbSizePcent"=dword:00000064
"MinWidthPx"=dword:0000012c
"TopMarginPx"=dword:00000020
"MaxThumbSizePx"=dword:000000c8
"MaxIconSizePx"=dword:000000fa
"TextBottomPx"=dword:000001f4

####/Snippet####

To revert back to the original settings, remove the added key. "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTab"

I also use a Logitech mouse that has 6 buttons. The mouse comes with it's own Document Switch feature, but I hate how they implemented it. A comment on the post I mention above recommended assigning this hotkey to a mouse button to make changing window focus even easier. On my Logitech mouse, I replaced their document switch button with the Ctrl + Alt + Tab hotkey (as recommended) which keeps the Alt+Tab selection window open indefinitely, so that you can click a thumbnail at your leisure... Very handy!

I am now using both of these tweaks and switching windows focus has never been easier, faster, or more intuitive. You should try it out.