About AltTab
AltTab replaces the Windows task switcher with one you can type into. It lists every open window, and typing narrows the list by window title or by application — so finding one window among thirty is a few letters rather than a dozen taps of Tab.
It is a native Win32 application: one executable, no runtime to install, no service, and nothing that starts unless you start it.
What it needs
| Windows | Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. There is no 32-bit build — Windows 11 has no 32-bit edition, and 32-bit Windows 10 left support in October 2025. |
| Installation | None. Unpack the archive and run AltTab.exe; see Getting started. |
| Settings | One INI file beside the executable. Nothing is written to the registry. |
A 32-bit process is also the worse build for this job: it is more restricted when interrogating 64-bit processes, which is most of what a task switcher does.
Which build you are running
Shift+F1, or About AltTab in the tray menu. The version line reads Version <year>.<release>.<patch>.<build> (<commit>) — four numbers and the commit the build came from.
The fourth number is the count of commits, so every build has its own version and no two builds share one. The commit in brackets is what identifies a build exactly, because several builds a day can carry the same version. Copy details puts all of it on the clipboard along with the Windows build and the architecture, which is what to paste into a report.
The version line also says so when AltTab is running elevated, and only then — see The tray icon for why that matters.
Licence
AltTab is MIT licensed. The full text is in LICENSE in the release archive.
The ReleaseLogger archive links log4cpp, which is LGPL 2.1. THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt in the archive names the exact upstream release and its SHA256, and carries a standing written offer of that source. The ordinary user-facing package contains no log4cpp at all: logging is compiled out of it, so it writes no log file and links no logging library.
Who wrote it
Lokesh Govindu — lokeshgovindu.github.io.
Kerry Sainsbury's earlier work on the original AltTab is the starting point this grew from; CREDITS.txt in the archive names both.
Where things are
| Home | alttab.sourceforge.io — this documentation, generated from the same files as the CHM. |
| Project | The project on SourceForge — the description, screenshots and reviews. |
| Downloads | All files and checksums — every release, plus SHA256SUMS.txt. |
| Problems | Tickets — see Contact for what to put in one. |
A note on antivirus
A fresh release is occasionally flagged by a scanner that has not seen the file before. A task switcher installs a global keyboard hook and reads other processes' window titles, which is what it is for, and also what a heuristic scanner looks at.
The answer is the checksum: SHA256SUMS.txt in the download area lists the hash of every archive, and SourceForge publishes its own hash for each file. If both match what you downloaded, you have the file that was published.
AltTab.NET
A ground-up rewrite on .NET 10 and WPF is in progress, sharing this one's settings file so that one AltTabSettings.ini means the same thing to both. It is not a replacement yet; this application stays the one to use. Its archives appear in the same download area when there is something worth trying.