How to disable alt+tab in windows 10 without autohotkey

How can a person disable Alt + Tab in Windows 10 without using any third party software like AutoHotkey?

Accidentally hitting Alt + Tab while gaming is really annoying. And some games do not allow the use of AutoHotkey or other third party software.

I need Alt + Tab disabled, but still want to have the ability to use the Alt and Tab keys individually.

2 Answers

It's too early to give a negative answer within the context of not using any third-party product, but here are the results of my historical research, which might help in advancing on this question.

The decision to make Alt-Tab extremely hard to intercept was taken in Windows NT. The article describing what was done has disappeared from the Internet, but I have found an old edition on the Wayback Machine, dating from December 2003. Because it's so hard to find, I reproduce it here as an image:

The three solutions listed by the Microsoft developers (dating from the time when they still answered user queries) are :

• Modifying the Windows kernel, meaning Windows DLLs (I have no intention).
• Register for hotkeys via API functionRegisterHotKey, which can only be done by injecting a DLL into the game while executing, so can get you seriously banned for life.
• Create a system-wide keyboard hook, like AutoHotKey does, which you say can also get you banned.

If we can believe the original developers of NT, these are the only options, of which the only realistic solution involves a program such as AutoHotKey.

From my side I can see no other solution, but perhaps someone else knows about some other clever hack.

An AutoHotKey script to disable Alt-Tab is :

#IfWinActive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
LAlt & Tab::
return

You should put the right title on the #IfWinActive command, for Alt-Tab to only be disabled while the game has the focus.

For games that use a low-level access to the keyboard, the script might need to be Run as Administrator.

Because it looks like it's almost impossible to solve the Problem without a 3rd party software, I would camouflage AutoHotkey this way:

1. Copy AutoHotkey.exe, rename it and move it to a less suspicious directory, e.g. copy c:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.exe
   to c:\Program Files\Microsoft\Monitor.exe or even to System32.
2. Rename the AutoHotkey-Script extension .ahk to e.g. .cfg,
   for example save it here: c:\Users\<user>\Monitor.cfg
3. Start the script, e.g.: c:\Program Files\Microsoft\Monitor.exe c:\Users\<user>\Monitor.cfg

I guess it will not be detected.

If it is recognized anyway, I would also change the properties of the copied exe file by using e.g. stackoverflow: How to change an executable's properties? (Windows) so that no file Property reminds of the origin, for example the File Description reads as e.g. "Application Monitor"