Time Saving Tuesday
One of Vista’s features that I use all of the time is the new Alt-Tab for switching between applications. Unlike Windows XP, Vista actually shows thumbnails for each application that you are running so that it is easier to identify what you’re looking for. And they just aren’t screenshots either like a lot of the imitators in XP, instead they show live previews of the application. Overall, it is just really nice.
The above is what the default Alt-Tab looks like in Windows Vista, and if you click on the image you’ll see the full-size version. That’s on a 1920×1200 screen, which makes it obvious that it doesn’t take up the whole width of the screen. Unfortunately Microsoft did not scale the width of the Alt-Tab based upon the size of the monitor.
If I’m running Vista on a monitor capable of 1920×1200, I want to utilize the space available. And as it stands, Alt-Tab shows 7 previews in a row before it creates a new row. I’d rather leave that number alone and have it make the thumbnails bigger when I have a larger resolution available.
That’s when I came across this site which gives some registry settings that you can modify to change the width of each thumbnail, and ultimately the size of the Alt-Tab display. To change the size just download this registry file, and after it is on your computer, right-click on it and select Merge. This will import it into your registry using the values I’ve specified in the file (optimized for displays that are 1680×1050).
The first thing you might want to do before Merging the file is to open it in Notepad (or any text editor) and adjust the MaxThumbSizePx to match something close to your resolution.
1024×768: MaxThumbSizePx = 00000078
1280×1024: MaxThumbSizePx = 0000009E
1680×1050: MaxThumbSizePx = 000000d2
1920×1200: MaxThumbSizePx = 000000f5
You do not need to restart your computer to see the changes, they should be instant. This is what the end result looks like on my 1920×1200 monitor (yeah, compare this to the screenshot above):
If you don’t like how it looks, and don’t want to mess around with it, you can always revert back to the old Vista Alt-Tab dimensions by removing the following “folder” from the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTab
That will delete all of the settings that you just entered in, and the Alt-Tab appearance will revert back to how it was previous to importing the values into the registry. If you wanted to mess with all of the values, it might be easier to open the registry editor, findi the location above, and edit the values there since you can enter them in as a normal decimal number:
It took some tinkering, but I got the configuration how I like it. Go ahead and play around with the values because in the end, I think you’ll like having the larger thumbnails!
TaskSwitchXP is a free Alt-Tab replacement for Windows XP that shows thumbnails of the open application.
[ntwind.com]
I used to use that as well when I was on XP, but Vista’s thumbnails are a little more advanced. There’s no doubt that XP users should have TaskSwitchXP installed though if they use Alt-Tab all of the time.
Apologies for the smileys
Merged it right away. Thanks so much!
I want to make the previews even larger. Is there a way to tweak this registry file to do that?
When I merged the reg file, it did modify what the alt-tab displayed. The problem I have is I can’t see the first icon in the row and the last two in the row. The outer-box is too wide. I am not sure how to tweak this. I have tried different values. My monitor is set to 1680 by 1050.
Thanks
Very good tweak. Finally got around to applying it tonight. I’ve also seen links to this post all over the place today.. good job!
“Alt-Tab shows 7 previews in a row before it creates a new row. I’d rather leave that number alone…”
For those of use that don’t want to leave it alone, what do we do?
You’re welcome!
Unfortunately you would have to decrease the number of thumbnails in each row…that’s something I haven’t been able to figure out how to do.
Decreasing the MaxThumbSizePx value should do the trick as I mentioned in the article, otherwise you may have to play with some of the other settings in the file.
I had finally got frustrated enough with the Alt-Tab not utilizing the full space of my monitor, which spurred me to go look for a solution. I’m glad that it worked well for you, and that other sites saw value in it!
That’s something I don’t know how to change yet, and I presume that Microsoft did not create a setting to adjust the number of thumbnails shown in each row.
Thank you very much for the info & reg key. Is there a way to remove the thumbnails altogether? I find them useless, period.
I don’t think there is a way to do that unfortunately.
Hi
It only seems to be able to display the thumbs on one line,
so it actually does not wrap, ie start a second line when there
are to many to fit on on line.
anything I can do to fix this?
system is lenovo Z61m with 1680×1050 screen
grtz
Thanks for the info. Did it right away. I am with the other guys, I want to decrease the amount of windows in the row. i have tried messing with all the numbers. Any help is appreciated.
I give information in the article on specific values that should be used with certain resolutions. If it doesn’t fit right you just need to keep messing with the values until you get it the way that you want.
Okay, so with the way BottomMarginPx is set in this reg file, when I alt+tab, the highlight touches said bottom margin and looks weird. I changed said data from 0000000a to 00000014 (decimal 10->20). Now, the bottom margin is spaced out in a more proper fashion. My res is 1680×1050.
Hmm, I’ve just noticed a flaw with using this reg file. If Aero is (somehow) disabled, the alt+tab window is distorted.
Ahh, I did not think about checking what it’s like without Aero.
Nice tweak………..hey but isn’t there any way to decrease the number of windows that are shown in a single row so as to get larger previews even if the monitor is not that big?
Unfortunately adjusting how many appear on each row is not possible.
Seams like DPI affects this so if you changed your dpi you may have to manually find the right setting. 215 workd for me with my DPI set to 110 with a 1920×1200
Anyone aware of a way to get the XP-style icons & large text box with window title back in Alt-Tab? It’s WAY faster to switch between numerous Word documents (for example) with just icons rather than getting distracted trying to figure out what the screen should look like if the window you want is in front.
I understand you can do this by turning off Aero (which I’ve done) but I don’t hate the translucent window borders, just the stupid icons in alt_tab.
Dunno.
Jim
those of you who dont like the alt tab for wutever reason may be interested in VistaSwitcher, its an alternative that replaces the regular alt tab with one that doesnt include the desktop as a choice and it has 3 different styles of preview options, no preview just a list, window preview, and desktop preview. So if u have a problem with alt tab for any reason give i vista switcher a try, i just added it myself and i can already see the improvements, and theres still some features i havent messed with yet
itz really coool