Disabling Alt-Tab

[Mazikeena]

A question came up the other day about disabling Alt-Tab on win32. I've looked into it and the only way to disable the key combination is to intercept the OS event and ignore it.

There is a SWTOR Forum post about this issue 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=70234

Some people say they've had luck with dWinlock (http://www.dwinlock.kassl.de/)but I'm not sure how convenient using the free version of this software is. My preferred solution is to use this simple, old utility by Paul DiLascia in 2002 (how-to article is at  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc188951.aspx).

If you don't care about the details, you can download the source to build your own simple utility with checkboxes for toggling whether Alt-Tab (and other key combos) are enabled.

You will need to run as administrator for it to work in SWTOR. I have built an executable which can run on Windows Vista or Windows 7.

www.alinenormoyle.com/projects/TrapKeys.zip

 

[Mazikeena]

And I forgot to add that the source with updated project files is here (the source is the same as from article): www.alinenormoyle.com/projects/TrapKeysSrc.zip

[Soulless]

why would one want to disable alt-tab?  it's one of the few ways to switch windows while in full screen, you would effectively be stuck at times without alt-tab.

[Mazikeena]

Everyone's setup is different, but I run windowed usually (so don't need alt-tab). Because Tab is a quick way to target, it is easy to hit alt-tab accidentally which is super annoying. Also seems to happen at all the worst times.

[Mazikeena]

Oh and I guess more generally: Alt-Tab and Ctrl-Alt-Del are usually disabled for things like public kiosks.

[Blasthardcheese]

Mazikeena wrote:

Everyone's setup is different, but I run windowed usually (so don't need alt-tab). Because Tab is a quick way to target, it is easy to hit alt-tab accidentally which is super annoying. Also seems to happen at all the worst times.

I can see atl+tab being a problem if you use actual alt+(key) and not binding the keystroke to a G key on an MMO keyboard. Or if the G key has alt+(key) as the keystroke and the computer registers that and the Tab key you press right after as you having pressed alt+tab only.

Which is one of the reasons I prefer to use Q as my "target closest enemy" key. That and it's the default key for the same thing in KotOR I & II which I played a ton of, so I'm very used to it.