Windows – ALT-Tab box displaying “hidden” programs in Windows 8

alt-tabwindows 8

Since yesterday, when I use the ALT+tab keyboard shortcut to switch between applications, I see my current running programs as usual but also five other "programs".

Three of them don't display a name and the two remaining onces are respectively called "Immersive Background" and "Snapped Desktop", when I try to switch to those, they just display my Desktop but with no icons and no taskbar …

The weird thing is that I didn't install anything, nor did I tweak the registry. This doesn't seem to affect the behavior of my laptop, but it's quite annoying. The other odd fact about this is that these "processes" aren't listed in the task manager.

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.

Best Answer

For some reason a registry value had been changed.

You will have to edit or create new one (if not exist):

\HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTabSettings, DWORD

Set the value to 0 (1 gives it the "classic" look and feel), restart explorer.exe (or even Windows in some cases) and that's it!

Possible cause - Sysinternals Desktops v2.0

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