Alt Tab doesn't work when Pro Tools is open

[amagras]

Mine works sometimes, I haven't found under which conditions exactly. The trick is to click on the start bar before going Alt+tab

[The Weed]

Try moving the Cursor to the Taskbar as, when the Cursor is on Pro Tools the focus is on Pro Tools and normal Windows keyboard shortcuts (normally) don't work.

[weezerboy]

You can always Alt+Tab INTO ProTools, you can never Alt+Tab OUT of ProTools.

When you're focused on the ProTools window, it hijacks those keys and doesn't let the OS use them. Which might make sense if Alt+Tab did something in ProTools...

[onosendai]

Originally Posted by weezerboy

You can always Alt+Tab INTO ProTools, you can never Alt+Tab OUT of ProTools.

When you're focused on the ProTools window, it hijacks those keys and doesn't let the OS use them. Which might make sense if Alt+Tab did something in ProTools...

I myself am slowly figuring out the "peculiar" pro tools workflow on windows.
Your signature lists PT12, have you tried that version on windows? I'm using 12 and I have no problem alt+tabbing out of pro tools. To me it seems that tab isn't the problem its "alt" because it activates some OS override menu underlining and captures your input. Check the File menu top left on your screen. My workaround so far has been to double-tab alt before alt+tabbing consecutively.

[amagras]

In some cases I have seen the opposite: sometimes "tab to transients" doesn't work, it shows the open tabs

[onosendai]

Originally Posted by amagras

In some cases I have seen the opposite: sometimes "tab to transients" doesn't work, it shows the open tabs

Yes, the behaviour changes when tab to transients is enabled and you alt+tab. Again its because when you tab back in to pro tools the file menu is already underlined, because of the previous use of "alt" so when you push tab to jump to the next transient it is interpreted as alt+tab. The only way to get out of this "menu capture" is to double tab "alt" whenever you have alt+tabbed back into pro tools.
This for me complicates the workflow immensely since I have to be aware if tab to transients is on or off and whatnot. Especially when you are jumping in and out of explorer, soundminer etc and have to work fast. It becomes even more complicated when US is not your native keyboard language.

[DFT]

Resurrecting a new theme on an old thread.

I seem to be having the opposite problem. Since recent Win 10 updates my alt key seems to be hijacked by the OS. Tab to transient + alt now opens a window with all open windows from the task bar instead of tabbing to the left.

There seem to be a few other anomalies with the alt key and Win 10, though I think I was able to reconfigure to stop that doodle window from opening and preventing me from toggling floating windows with Cntrl+Start+Alt+W.

Any ideas?

[guitardom]

Originally Posted by DFT

Resurrecting a new theme on an old thread.

I seem to be having the opposite problem. Since recent Win 10 updates my alt key seems to be hijacked by the OS. Tab to transient + alt now opens a window with all open windows from the task bar instead of tabbing to the left.

There seem to be a few other anomalies with the alt key and Win 10, though I think I was able to reconfigure to stop that doodle window from opening and preventing me from toggling floating windows with Cntrl+Start+Alt+W.

Any ideas?

This has to be something unique to your system causing these issues. Do you happen to have sticky keys turned on? or maybe some sort of macro program running? ?

[DFT]

Originally Posted by guitardom

This has to be something unique to your system causing these issues. Do you happen to have sticky keys turned on? or maybe some sort of macro program running? ?

Thanks for your help. When I say 'doodle' it's because I can't remember the name of that feature in Win 10. Basically it opened up a window from the task bar on the right side of the screen where you could apparently work with images. Anyway I Googled it some time ago and found instructions to turn something off. Initially that didn't work, but a few reboots later it no longer seems to be an issue and I can toggle my floating windows.

I'm sure there must be away to similarly disable the current Tab+Alt behavior so I can get my shortcut back.

To the best of my knowledge I have no 'sticky keys' or macros running. The PC is a custom build DAW from ADK purportedly tweaked for audio and PT.

The only thing I can imagine might be like a macro is Softube Console1. But then I'd think that it would affect something in that app and not in the OS.

[chrismeraz]

Alt + Tab works properly for me in Pro Tools 2021.10 on Windows 10. However, after the first time I use Alt + Tab in PT, the Ctrl modifier key will stop working in PT (meaning I can't save, cut, copy, switch to the mix/edit window etc.), effectively rendering PT useless.

I tried turning off Tab to Transient, but that didn't help. I tried using Task View with several virtual desktops, but the Win + Tab shortcut doesn't work in PT; neither does Win + Ctrl + right/left arrow. I even tried AutoHotKey, but it's the same problem there.

I need to switch between UAD Console and PT frequently while recording (several times during each take). I put in a ticket with AVID and I bumped it every two weeks for two whole years so they wouldn't automatically close it, but they never helped. So far the only real solution I found is to switch to Mac, but that's a $2000 to $3000 solution... damn.

Can anyone help us poor PC users?