How to restore the Classic Alt+Tab Dialog in Windows 11

In this tutorial, we will show you how to restore the Classic Alt+Tab dialog in Windows 11/10. You will be able to use the XP Style Alt+Tab Switcher that was introduced in Windows 95 and continued in Windows XP. This old Alt+Tab menu shows only app icons and has a compact size. While the modern Alt+Tab menu of Windows 11 looks pretty good and shows the thumbnail preview of opened apps, the classic Alt+Tab is extremely simple and less distractive, as you can see in the image below. So, if you want to use it, then you can check the options included in this post.

How to restore the Classic Alt+Tab Dialog in Windows 11/10

There are three different ways to restore the Classic Alt+Tab dialog in Windows 11/10. These are:

Using Windows Registry
Using Ultimate Windows Tweaker 5
Temporarily open the Classic Alt+Tab menu.

Let’s use these options one by one.

1] Using Windows Registry

If you want to permanently enable the classic Alt+Tab dialog in Windows 11, then you can use the Windows Registry trick. You can always get back to the modern Alt+Tab dialog anytime you want. Before this, take a Windows Registry backup in case you need it later. Now follow the steps covered below:

Open the Search box, type regedit, and hit the Enter key to open Windows Registry (or Registry Editor)
Jump to the Explorer key in the Registry Editor using the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value on the right section of the Explorer key
Rename the new value to AltTabSettings
Open the Edit box of AltTabSettings DWORD value by double-clicking on it
Place 1 in the Value data
Press the OK button
Restart File Explorer.

To restore the modern Alt+Tab menu, use the above steps, and delete the AltTabSettings value that you created. Restart the File Explorer to add the change.

2] Using Ultimate Windows Tweaker

If you aren’t comfortable making changes to the Windows Registry manually, then you can also use our free Ultimate Windows Tweaker to restore the XP Style Alt+Tab Switcher in Windows 11. More than 200 tweaks are available to use and classic Alt+Tab is one such tweak. Here are the steps:

Download the ZIP file of Ultimate Windows Tweaker 5 and extract it into a folder
Execute the EXE file to open the tool interface
Select the Customization category from the left section
In Windows 11 tab on the right part, select Enable Classic Alt+Tab Menu option
Uncheck the other options in that tab otherwise, those tweaks will also be applied. You can use any tweak you like though
Press the Apply Tweaks button.

This will automatically restart the File Explorer and you can start using the old Alt+Tab menu.

To disable the classic Alt+Tab menu, you can use the above steps, uncheck the Enable Classic Alt+Tab Menu option, and hit the Apply Tweaks button.

3] Temporarily open the Classic Alt+Tab menu

This is an interesting trick that I like the most. If you don’t prefer tweaking Registry settings, then you can temporarily open the classic Alt+Tab menu with this option. Here are the steps:

Press and hold the left Alt key
Press the right Alt key and release it
Tap on the Tab key and you will see the classic Alt+Tab menu.

You can keep tapping the Tab key (while holding the left Alt key) to switch to the opened applications.

Release the Alt key and Tab key and the selected application will open. The classic Alt+Tab menu will also be gone as it is visible only once with this trick. You can follow the above steps as many times as you want to temporarily open the classic Alt+Tab menu.

That’s it.

How do I get my classic Alt-Tab back?

If you are on a Windows 11 computer and want to get back the old Alt+Tab menu (XP Style Alt+Tab Switcher), also known as the classic Alt+Tab dialog, then you can do it in three ways. These include a Registry Editor method, the Ultimate Windows Tweaker tool, and a trick that shows the old Alt+Tab dialog temporarily. All these options with a step-by-step guide are included in this post. Check them out.

How do I fix the Alt-Tab glitch?

If the Alt+Tab shortcut key is not working in Windows 11/10, then restart File Explorer. It might be a temporary glitch that will be resolved by doing so. If this doesn’t work, then turn on the Enable Peek option, and run the built-in Keyboard troubleshooter. Or else, re-install the Keyboard driver. For this, you can expand the Keyboards section in Device Manager, right-click on the keyboard driver, and use the Uninstall device option. Windows will automatically install the keyboard driver after reboot.