Home » How To » How to Create Right-hand Alt + Tab Shortcut in Windows 10 (7 & 8)

How to Create Right-hand Alt + Tab Shortcut in Windows 11 & 10

If you’re left-handed, you might use your mouse with your left hand, making the default Alt + Tab shortcut inconvenient since it requires moving your hand from the mouse to the keyboard. But what if you can create a custom right-hand Alt + Tab functionality?

While Windows doesn’t have a built-in option, you can use AutoHotKey, a free and open-source software to create custom shortcuts and macros, to create your own Alt + Tab shortcut on the right side of your keyboard. Once created, you can press the shortcut with your right hand to use the Alt + Tab functionality. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Before You Start

  • Important: Download AutoHotKey from this page, double-click the installer, and follow the instructions to install AutoHotKey.

Creating a Right-Hand Alt + Tab Shortcut

  1. Press the “Start” key on your keyboard.
  2. Search and open “Notepad“.
  3. Paste the following script in the Notepad.
    ; Use Ctrl + / to open Alt + Tab
    ~Ctrl & /:: {
        Send("{Alt down}")       ; Hold down Alt to open the window switcher
        Send("{Tab}")            ; Press Tab once to open the switcher and show thumbnails
        return
    }
    
    ; Cycle through Alt + Tab thumbnails with /
    ~*/:: {
        if GetKeyState("Ctrl", "P") {
            Send("{Tab}")        ; Move to the next thumbnail when / is pressed
        }
        return
    }
    
    ; Release Alt when Ctrl is released, finalizing the selection
    ~Ctrl up::Send("{Alt up}")
  4. Click “File” > “Save as” option.
  5. Go to the folder where you want to save the file.
  6. Type “Alt-tab switcher.ahk” in the “File name” field.
  7. Select “All files” from the “File type” dropdown menu.
  8. Click “Save“.
  9. Find and double-click the AHK script you just created to launch it.
  10. As long as the script is running, you can press “Ctrl + /” for the “Alt + Tab” functionality.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, we must create the script. To do that, open the Start menu, search for “Notepad” and click the “Open” option to launch the Notepad app.

open notepad

Copy and paste the following script into the Notepad window.

; Use Ctrl + / to open Alt + Tab
~Ctrl & /:: {
  Send("{Alt down}")       ; Hold down Alt to open the window switcher
  Send("{Tab}")           ; Press Tab once to open the switcher and show thumbnails
  return
}

; Cycle through Alt + Tab thumbnails with /
~*/:: {
  if GetKeyState("Ctrl", "P") {
      Send("{Tab}")       ; Move to the next thumbnail when / is pressed
  }
  return
}

; Release Alt when Ctrl is released, finalizing the selection
~Ctrl up::Send("{Alt up}")
ahk script to create right hand alt + tab shortcut

Next, click the “File” and then “Save as” option.

select file and then save as

In the “Save as” window, go to the folder where you want to save the script, type “Alt-tab switcher.ahk” in the “File name” field, select “All files” from the “File type” dropdown menu, and click “OK“.

save ahk script

Now, open the File Explorer, find the recently saved AHK script file, and double-click it to run.

Important note: You must have AutoHotKey software installed for the script to run.

run ahk script

If you want to customize the shortcut, you need to change all the instances of “Ctrl” and “/” in the above script with the keys of your choice. You can get the key list you can use with AutoHotKey from there.

To make sure you have to functionality ready to use as soon as you turn on your computer, add the AHK script to startup.

The above action launches the script and you can see it on the taskbar system tray. As long as the script is running, you can press “Ctrl + /” on the left side for the alt-tab functionality.

Win 10 right hand alt tab - autohotkey script running

Wrapping Up — Right Hand Alt + Tab Shortcut on Windows

As you can see, even though Windows doesn’t support a right-side Alt + Tab shortcut by default, you can easily create one with the help of AutoHotKey. One of the best things about AutoHotKey is that you can customize the script to meet your specific use case. For instance, if you don’t like the default shortcut in the script, you can change it easily to the one you want to use. Remember, the script must be running in the background for the shortcut to work, so don’t forget to add the AutoHotKey script to your startup. That way, you don’t have to manually launch the script.

Related: 50 most useful Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts.

Update: The tutorial is updated to use the AutoHotKey v2 script.

2 thoughts on “How to Create Right-hand Alt + Tab Shortcut in Windows 11 & 10”

    1. Avatar for Bashkarla

      Hi,

      I just recreated the steps on my machine and it worked as it should.
      Make sure you followed the steps as-is and don’t forget to rename the file so that it has “.ahk” extension instead of “.txt”.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *