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Known Participant
March 3, 2023
Question

Windows 11 Alt-tab is a pain with multiple images open in Photoshop

  • March 3, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 3133 views

Hi, Having just upgraded to Windows 11 from XP (don't laugh!),  I'm finding it too difficult to use alt-tab to switch between open apps when I have lots of images open in Photoshop. Previously: let's say I'm in Photoshop. I had just been in notepad, and I want to pop back there. I click alt-tab, it takes 1/5 of a second, and there I am, back in notepad. In the window that pops up when you press alt-tab, there is *one* instance of Photoshop, *one* instance of each app that is open.

But now, the alt-tab popup shows an instance of Photoshop for *every* image that is currently open within Photoshop, so I can't just snap alt-tab and go back to notebook--rather, I have to click through all the Photoshops to get there, which takes so long as to make alt-tab useless for switching between aps. I've attached an image of what the alt-tab window looks like when Photoshop has many images open. 

So the question: is there a setting, or a registry thingie, that I'm missing, that can make it so alt-tab takes me *just back and forth from Photoshop*, and doesn't consider every image its own destination?

Sure hope I explained that well enough!

/SD

1 reply

Sameer K
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 3, 2023

This upgrade must be a giant leap for you. I'll try to clarify this for you. This ALT+ Tab behavior has been Microsoft Explorer's way of interpreting Tab instances since Windows 10. I've seen discussions about this on other non-adobe forums too.

You can try Win + Tab instead of ALT + Tab or try this in Photoshop:

  • Window > Arrange > Consolidate All to tabs
  • Try ALT + Tab now & Windows Explorer should not count each open document as a separate task.

 

Let me know if this helps. Thanks!
Sameer K

Known Participant
March 3, 2023

Hi, Sameer,

Totally works! However, I can't stand having images in tabs, I like them all floating in their windows, all the time. I don't use tabs at all. Is there *still* a way to fix this? Thanks!