Powertoys: [Keyboard Manager] Tab navigation not showing after remapping Ctrl/Alt

[micc83]

Environment

Windows build number: Microsoft Windows [Versione 10.0.18363.836]
PowerToys version: v0.18.0
PowerToy module for which you are reporting the bug: Keyboard Manager

Steps to reproduce

1. Map key 'Ctrl (left)' to 'Alt (left)'
2. Map key 'Alt (left)' to 'Ctrl (left)'
3. Map shortcut 'Ctrl (left) + Tab' to 'Alt (left) + Tab'
4. Keeping 'Alt' key pressed down press the 'Tab' key more than once

Expected behavior

Windows Tab navigation should be shown and stay open while Alt key pressed so to be able to switch between open apps with the Tab key.

Actual behavior

Windows Tab navigation is shown for a millisecond and the app is immediatly switch to the next one. No way for the navigation tab to be kept open.

Screenshots

[arjunbalgovind]

Related to #3331 . Can repro easily

[arjunbalgovind]

@micc83 to clarify your scenario with the above remappings, are you trying to swap Ctrl and Alt, but also leave Alt+Tab unchanged? (since you are probably used to it)

[micc83]

@arjunbalgovind yep. The idea is to replicate as much as possible the keyboard shortcuts I've on Mac at my working place.

[arjunbalgovind]

Just to get some more feedback, did you find it made sense that on the Remap Shortcuts screen when you hit Alt-Tab on your keyboard it would show up as Ctrl-Tab (since the keys are now remapped)? In broader terms, does it make sense that your shortcut remaps _depend_ on your key remaps?

This was something that we were discussing a lot on and we decided to go in this direction, but it would be good to get a user's point of view on what you actually expected.

[micc83]

Did you find it made sense that on the Remap Shortcuts screen when you hit Alt-Tab on your keyboard it would show up as Ctrl-Tab (since the keys are now remapped)?

No, it didn't and yet from a logical point of view it makes perfect sense.

In broader terms, does it make sense that your shortcut remaps depend on your key remaps?

Still no and yet I don't see how to make it better. I guess the biggest problem here is that remapping system shortcuts shouldn't be a thing. All the system shortcuts should be customizable from Windows itself. On Gnome, for example, you have a dedicated panel to configure shortcuts. Then you can install Gnome Tweak Tool to do single keys remap. However as I guess this is not an option, you probably picked the right way to go.

Keyboard shortcuts:

Gnome Tweak Tool:

[arjunbalgovind]

@micc83 the other way to go is to merge the two windows #3332, in which case your shortcut remaps would be pre-key remap, but in your particular case it would be weird since you would have to swap Ctrl and Alt and remap Alt+Tab to itself (which doesn't look logical to me). Agreed that it would make much more sense if it was in-built like the screenshot you sent, but this is the first step. PowerToys in the past have been merged back in to the OS so in the future anything is possible :)

[micc83]

Completely agree on the fact that remapping Alt+Tab to itself would be very counterintuitive. By the way I wasn't complaining. I feel like that you, and your colleagues working on WSL 2, Windows Terminal, etc... are really doing a great job on giving a better experience to web developers (used to work on pretty expensive Apple machines). Thank you!

[crutkas]

Fixed in 0.19.0, please visit https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/ for the latest release

[loreleion]

There is still a problem with this when also swapping alt+shift+tab and ctrl+shift+tab. Normally, you can reverse the movement through the recent windows popup by starting to hold shift. For instance, if you hit tab too many times and want to go back one, you can hold shift without releasing alt and then hit tab, then release all. When remapping, as soon as I hit shift the currently highlighted window is brought to focus. I created a separate issue for this at #4630. Not sure if I should have commented here initially instead. New to GitHub.