How do I make Alt-Tab show a visible window that has no taskbar?

In Windows 7, does Alt+Tab now only display windows that have a taskbar button? Windows without a taskbar button are not showing up in the Alt+Tab list.

This is somewhat annoying to say the least. Visible dialogs without a taskbar button obviously cannot be selected via the taskbar, and they can't be selected via Alt+Tab either?

The application in question is a legacy (pre-Vista) app that creates a simple window without a taskbar button. Windows XP displays it in the task switcher. Windows 7 does not.

user73728

Posted 2011-12-18T00:15:10.060

Reputation:

This looks like something Old New Thing could answer... but for the first time I can't find a really relevant post. :-C

– user1686 – 2011-12-18T00:41:42.840

@grawity: Your googling skillz have failed you :) http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/10/08/5351207.aspx

– surfasb – 2011-12-18T01:47:29.157

1This would be bad if all invisible windows were added to Alt-Tab – Andrew Lambert – 2011-12-18T02:21:58.227

If you know how, it would be trivial to write an app that used FindWindow and PostMessage to send this window the WS_EX_APPWINDOW message. This forces the window onto the taskbar. – Andrew Lambert – 2011-12-18T02:39:57.883

Answers

Windows allows any program to NOT include itself in the taskbar and thus not include itself in the Alt Tab list.

And there is no public API to change the Task Switcher (God help us if third party programs were allowed to!).

So essentially the problem boils down to, "Program A does not show up in the Task Switcher. How do I make Program A show up in the Task Switcher?"

surfasb

Posted 2011-12-18T00:15:10.060

Reputation: 21 453

> And there is no public API to change the Task Switcher (God help us if third party programs were allowed to!). Do you means specifically in Windows 7? XP certainly had the option, both officially and third-party, and they work in Windows 7. – Synetech – 2011-12-18T01:50:29.920

1@Synetechinc.: I have no idea how the Alt-Tab power toy worked. But from I can tell, the only way to replace the Task Switcher is to install a global hook and intercept the keyboard call. In otherwords, it's not an API. There are Win32 calls to reorder the windows and such . . . – surfasb – 2011-12-18T02:18:21.593