Several users of Windows 10 are reporting issues on breakage of the Alt+Tab function, after installing the July 2021 preview and August 2021 patch updates.
While the July 2021 preview (KB5004296) was an optional one, the August 2021 security patch (KB5005033) was a mandatory one and should be installed. While there’s no official remedy yet, there’s a proposed workaround for the meanwhile.
New Windows 10 Issues After Updates
It’s usual for Microsoft and its Windows users to experience problems in software updates, since early last year. Wholesome is really worse causing full PC breakdown, some are petty but still infuriating.
The latest issue was one of such, breaking down the Alt+Tab function in Windows 10 after updating to July 2021 preview and August 2021 patch updates. While the KB5004296 (July update) was optional to experience new upcoming features, the KB5005033 (August update) was mandatory and meant for rectifying gaming issues.
Alt-Tab in general is meant for switching between tabs and apps, where holding both keys on the keyboard will show all the active apps running currently, and then pressing tab will switch screens among them.
This is a quick shortcut similar to Recent apps in smartphones. Users are reporting that pressing these keys on Windows 10 after the updates are showing them a black screen when tried to switch from home to a game.
Windows 10 KB5004296 – Performance Fixes
by u/zakk002 in Windows10
While there’s no official patch yet, a simple workaround is noted as – disabling the News and Interests section from the Taskbar. For this;
- Right-click anywhere on the taskbar.
- Scroll up to the News and interests option.
- Click on “Turn off“.
This should erase the News and Interests section from your Taskbar, and also solve the Alt+Tab broken functionality temporarily. If not this, you can also roll back the concerned updates to solve this issue.
For this, go to Settings > Update & Security > View update history > Uninstall updates. Clicking on it will show you all the KB updates you’ve installed, select the KB5005033 or KB5004296 and uninstall them.