If there's one keyboard shortcut I rely on more than any other, it's Alt-Tab. In case you're unfamiliar with it, Alt-Tab cycles between open programs. And in Vista, you even get to see a thumbnail of each program rather than just its icon (which is how Windows XP did it).
The problem is, those thumbnails are way too small. On my 22-inch monitor, they might as well be icons. Fortunately, there's a simple way to make the thumbnails larger--though it does require a bit of Registry tinkering. Here's how:
1. Start by downloading this small file: alttab.reg .
2. Right-click the file and choose Edit. This will open the file in Notepad.
3. Change the MaxThumbSizePx value to 000000f5. Save the file and then exit Notepad.
4. Right-click the file again and this time choose Merge. You'll get a few warnings and whatnot--go ahead and click OK as needed until you get confirmation that the Registry has been updated.
That's it! Now press Alt-Tab and you should see larger thumbnails. Don't like the change? Open the Registry and delete the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTab
In case you missed it, yesterday's post was also about enlarging tiny thumbnails: Vista's taskbar window-preview.