Guest Ed Graham Posted June 28, 2008 Posted June 28, 2008 When I hold down Alt and press and release Tab, the small list of icons flashes up briefly in the centre of the screen but then disappears (instead of remaining visible), with the result that I can't tab through the various open windows on my system. The same behaviour can be observed when using an application like Visual Studio that makes use of Ctrl Tab for looping through open documents -- the list of icons appears fleetingly and then goes again. Even some tool-tips are affected; e.g., when debugging in Visual Studio and hovering over a variable to see its contents, I now find that the mini pop-up window flicks off almost immediately. This has just started happening (at about 11pm last night), without my having changed anything at all; when I stopped for dinner it was all fine and when I came back an hour later (having left the machine on), it had gone wrong. The change has survived numerous reboots and seems permanent; given the widespread effects I've described, I'm wondering whether some low-level systems file has been compromised somehow. This actually happened to me at the end of last year, when I ended up reinstalling the OS, which is 64-bit Windows Server 2003. (Why I am using a server platform for development is a good question -- I am building web-sites and it is handy to be able to have a powerful web-server available locally.) All answers, links and other messages of support very gratefully received! Ed Graham
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 Re: Problem with Alt-Tab task switcher "Ed Graham" <EdGraham@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:66CD3F75-E55C-4961-83B6-2C6789BD4CED@microsoft.com... > When I hold down Alt and press and release Tab, the small list of icons > flashes up briefly in the centre of the screen but then disappears > (instead > of remaining visible), with the result that I can't tab through the > various > open windows on my system. The same behaviour can be observed when using > an > application like Visual Studio that makes use of Ctrl Tab for looping > through > open documents -- the list of icons appears fleetingly and then goes > again. > Even some tool-tips are affected; e.g., when debugging in Visual Studio > and > hovering over a variable to see its contents, I now find that the mini > pop-up > window flicks off almost immediately. > > This has just started happening (at about 11pm last night), without my > having changed anything at all; when I stopped for dinner it was all fine > and > when I came back an hour later (having left the machine on), it had gone > wrong. The change has survived numerous reboots and seems permanent; > given > the widespread effects I've described, I'm wondering whether some > low-level > systems file has been compromised somehow. This actually happened to me > at > the end of last year, when I ended up reinstalling the OS, which is 64-bit > Windows Server 2003. (Why I am using a server platform for development is > a > good question -- I am building web-sites and it is handy to be able to > have a > powerful web-server available locally.) > > All answers, links and other messages of support very gratefully received! > > Ed Graham This type of problem is almost always caused by some change in the registry. If your version of Windows Server includes a System Restore function, use it to put the registry back to the time before you had your dinner. If it does not then you should roll your own System Restore, by using the Task Scheduler to launch regback.exe which would maintain a number of registry backups. This approach has saved me on several occasions.
Guest Ed Graham Posted July 7, 2008 Posted July 7, 2008 Alt-tab problem (reply) Alt-tab problem (reply) Thanks very much for the reply, Pegasus: somehow I didn't receive notification of it, so I've only just found it. A registry change would explain it, so I think rolling back is the way to go; unfortunately I haven't set up the System Restore facility on here, so the regback.exe route looks the way to go. Can you elaborate on the steps required to "use the Task Scheduler to launch regback.exe which would maintain a number of registry backups"? I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to these things! Thanks again for your help, Ed
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted July 7, 2008 Posted July 7, 2008 Re: Alt-tab problem (reply) Re: Alt-tab problem (reply) <Ed Graham> wrote in message news:2008778958ed_ward_graham@hotmail.com... > Thanks very much for the reply, Pegasus: somehow I didn't receive > notification of it, so I've only just found it. A registry change would > explain it, so I think rolling back is the way to go; unfortunately I > haven't set up the System Restore facility on here, so the regback.exe > route looks the way to go. Can you elaborate on the steps required to > "use the Task Scheduler to launch regback.exe which would maintain a > number of registry backups"? I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to these > things! > > Thanks again for your help, > > Ed Here is a batch file I created recently. It maintains %count% versions of the common registry files. It also sends you a notification when it has done its job (because you need to be aware that it's there!). 1. Create the file c:\Tools\RegistryBacker.bat 2. Copy & paste the lines below into this file. 3. Unwrap wrapped lines. Each line must start with a two-digit line number! 4. Adjust lines #15-20 to suit your requirements. 5. Remove the line numbers. 6. Download regback.exe and blat.exe. Type this line into a Google search box if you cannot find them: download blat.exe 7. Test the batch file from a Command Prompt. 8. Use the Task Scheduler to invoke this batch file once every week. To restore a damaged registry you need a tool such as a Bart PE boot CD. 01. @echo off 02. goto Start 03. =================================================== 04. This batch file will back up all registry files to 05. %SystemRoot%\Repair\%Num%, i.e. to one of %count% 06. folders. 07. 08. Prerequisites: - c:\Tools\Regback.exe 09. - c:\Tools\blat.exe 10. 11. 2.2.2008 FNL 12. =================================================== 13. 14. :Start 15. set count=4 16. set Sender=support@ed.com 17. set Receiver=support@ed.com 18. set smtp=mail.ed.com 19. set Subject=Registry backer 20. set body=This is an automatic message - please do not reply to it. The registry files on "%ComputerName%" were backed up on %date% at %time:~0,5%. 21. 22. call :SetDest 23. call :Backup 24. call :Notify 25. c:\tools\blat "%temp%\regback.dir" -to %receiver% -subject "%subject%" -f %sender% -server %smtp% 26. 27. goto :eof 28. 29. ---------------------------------------------- 30. Determine the destination for the backup by 31. incrementing the previous destination counter. 32. ---------------------------------------------- 33. :SetDest 34. for /L %%a in (1,1,%count%) do if not exist %SystemRoot%\Repair\%%a md %SystemRoot%\Repair\%%a 35. if not exist %SystemRoot%\Repair\Backup.log (set dest=1 & goto SetDest1) 36. 37. for /F %%a in (%SystemRoot%\Repair\Backup.log) do set /a dest=%%a+1 38. if %dest% GTR %count% set dest=1 39. 40. :SetDest1 41. echo %dest% %date% %time:~0,5% >> %SystemRoot%\Repair\Backup.log 42. set dest=%SystemRoot%\Repair\%dest% 43. goto :eof 44. 45. --------------------------------- 46. Back up the common registry hives 47. --------------------------------- 48. :Backup 49. del /q %dest%\*.* 50. c:\Tools\regback.exe %dest% 51. dir %dest% /od > "%temp%\regback.dir" 52. goto :eof
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