6
2
When Alt-Tab'ing in Windows 7, the size of the application thumbnails is quite small on higher resolutions. Especially with many applications running, imo it is hard to discern from the thumbnail which application it is.
Is it possible to increase the size of these thumbnails? There is certainly enough screen space to accommodate larger thumbnails.
Peter Lillevold
Posted 2009-10-16T12:10:44.473
Reputation: 174
7
It's possible to increase the thumbnail size in the ALT-Tab window without a 3rd party tool.
See instructions here. They give a registry file that adds several entries to the Registry that control the behavior of the ALT-Tab windows and thumbnails.
I guess you're interested in changing the MaxThumbSizePx entry.
Play a bit with the settings to find what you like. No need to restart, they're picked up on-the-fly.
If you want to change the number of rows or columns displayed in the ALT-Tab window, see the settings CoolSwitchColumns and CoolSwitchRows, explained here by Microsoft. Restart needed when changing these 2 values.
Be very cautious of course when changing the Registry !!!!
Snark
Posted 2009-10-16T12:10:44.473
Reputation: 30 147
3
Try vistaswitcher. It gives large thumbnails and a bunch of other functions. Screenshots are on the linked page.
outsideblasts
Posted 2009-10-16T12:10:44.473
Reputation: 6 297
1
Just to recap Snark's answer, the registry key is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTab
Values (the first one controls the thumbnail width):
"MaxThumbSizePx"=dword:000000d2
"OverlayIconPx"=dword:00000023
"OverlayIconDXPx"=dword:00000000
"OverlayIconDYPx"=dword:00000000
"ThumbSpacingXPx"=dword:00000014
"ThumbSpacingYPx"=dword:00000014
"SideMarginPx"=dword:00000014
"BottomMarginPx"=dword:0000000a
"MinThumbSizePcent"=dword:00000064
"MinWidthPx"=dword:0000012c
"TopMarginPx"=dword:0000003c
"MaxIconSizePx"=dword:0000015e
"TextBottomPx"=dword:000001f4
Simon
Posted 2009-10-16T12:10:44.473
Reputation: 11
Someone has been reading the How-to Geek ;) http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/5037/vistaswitcher-is-a-ridiculously-awesome-alt-tab-replacement/
– Gnoupi – 2009-10-16T12:26:35.517So, the correct answer in your opinion is: "No, you cannot. Use 3rd party tool"....? – Peter Lillevold – 2009-10-16T12:32:47.230
Gnoupi: he he. Think I got it from Lifehacker maybe. – outsideblasts – 2009-10-16T12:40:29.957
+1 for nice tool... though you are not answering my question ;) – Peter Lillevold – 2009-10-16T12:41:05.447
Peter: I guess that's a fair conclusion yes. I've never heard about a way to change the size natively. – outsideblasts – 2009-10-16T12:41:51.437
I have just started using this and it's awesome. Switching applications by holding the right mouse and then moving the wheel is just super. – Dave Webb – 2009-10-16T13:54:05.637
@Dane Webb : Opera uses this to switch tabs, so it could be a problem. Also, unusable for someone playing games, I guess. Switching application by accident would happen too often, depending on the game. – Gnoupi – 2009-10-16T15:36:06.607