I'd like to use Alt+Tab a lot when I'm programming under Windows. It's the quickest method to switch between windows. However, there's one annoying thing about this, and that is when I switch over to Desktop using Alt+Tab, Windows uses the Show Desktop functionality instead of minimizing all Windows.
I personally hate Show Desktop, since it creates a separate window on top of all the other windows which captures a live display of desktop, and this causes all the widgets I have on the desktop to be hidden under this live window, and I love my widgets.
An ideal behavior for when I switch tabs to Desktop using Alt+Tab would be the "Minimize All" behavior, which simply minimizes all windows, leaving me with my actual desktop, which sits behind everything. In order to achieve this, I have to move my fingers across the keyboard, and press Win+M, which just feels clunky.
How can I tell Windows to Minimize All rather than Show Desktop when I use Alt+Tab to Desktop?
Best Answer
You can disable Aero Peek to prevent the overlaid window.
You can install an alternate
Alt+Tab
handler to customize the behavior. I can’t find any that currently include a default minimize all function (though VistaSwitcher does include some minimizing functionality), but you could easily just request it from the devs.