It won't let me alt-tab. Nothing happens.

Also if I ctrl-alt-del and then click on task manager, it immediately jumps back to the game.

Windows 7. Game has not been messed with at all.

Any suggestions?

Same here.

Same here, tried to force the game into running windowed but that didn't help either. I've got a crippling alt tab addiction so any help would be really welcome.

Anyone tried contacting GOG support?

I have the same problem in Windows XP... but if you have another program running before you launch BG&E, like a browser window, THEN you can alt-tab to that other window and do stuff. If there is nothing running except BG&E, I can't Alt-Tab out of the game.

As I said, this is XP, but maybe the same in the other Windoze? I have to make a habit of ALWAYS having "something else" running, even if it's just Notepad or something stupid, just so I can Alt-Tab out.

Yep, same issue here on Windows 7. I cannot alt tab to any other programs. The only success I've had is by doing ctrl alt delete to get to the task manager and at that point the game minimizes.

Running into same problem on Windows 7. Alt-tab doesnt work. Ctrl-alt-del worked the first few times I've played but now when I click Start Task manager it just goes back into the game.

There is a file in the Beyond Good and Evil directory labeled 'gog_beyond_good_and_evil.sdb'. If opened in notepad, the lest entries state 'Ignore Allt+tab' and 'Single Processor Affinity'. I have attempted to rename the .sdb file to a .bak, attempted to remove it from the BG&E directory, and also removed the goggame.dll file - no result. The game executable continues to lock Alt+Tab.

I have found on my system (Win7, x64), if I use CTRL+ALT+DEL and select 'Start Task Manager', the game will minimize. If I close Task Manager before returning to the game, I can then repeat the process to get out of the game. If Task Manager is left open in the background when returning to BG&E, however, the came will flicker to the desktop briefly before reinstating itself when using CTRL+ALT+DEL -> Start Task Manager.

I wonder why ALT+TAB was locked out?

I found using Ctrl-alt-del to be completely random. This one would have to be solved by GOG I guess.

For this game it's actually a registry setting - that GOG appears to override (presumably for compatibility reasons).

The following is for XP, please adjust as required for Windows 7 etc. (should be similar, maybe different registry paths etc.):

1. run "regedit.exe"

2. Search for "GOGBEYONDGOODANDEVIL" (e.g. using CTRL+F),
OR
navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GOG.com\GOGBEYONDGOODANDEVIL.

3. Find the field "DISABLEALTTAB" and change it to "false" (double-click on that field, change the "Value data" to "false", push OK).
OR
if for some reason this field is not present (can't imagine why it wouldn't be), then create it by right-clicking in the area where the fields are, selecting New->String Value, name it "DISABLEALTTAB", then set it to "false" as described above.

Naturally, this will only work for the GOG version (I assume for other versions changing the file as described above would probably work - assuming the game runs that is!). Hope this helps you all out.

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On the reasons why this was locked out, I would assume it's the same reason that many games (at least in the past) used to do this...

What? Why are you looking at me like that? Oh, the reasons... Well you know... things... and stuff... :)

OK seriously though, I'll chuck some speculation RE ALT-TAB restrictions in games up, for those that are even remotely interested (the rest - you've got what you came for! But you may want to note the things that can go screwy below anyway... ;) ).

I have some theories: for one, ALT-TAB'ing changes the priority of OS processes (the game is no longer in the "foreground" until it's ALT-TABbed back to that position). Following from that (or in addition to that) are many things that could affect the game: negative performance (due to reassigned priorities), memory being moved around (potentially being cached to disk (for machines with lower RAM) - then back again - leading to more negative performance). This is if one assumes the ALT-TAB was originally from when the game was released, as it was common for games to specifically mention "Do not ALT-TAB/do not use the Windows key in this game" or something to that effect.

The only other thing I can think of RE ALT-TAB restriction would be related to graphics cards/drivers - strange things can happen with the graphics in this game if you ALT-TAB out of it and back in, which is dependent on your CPU/GPU. This isn't the only game that does this, and there are many that had these kinds of issues when they were released back in the day.

BTW I don't actually know whether GOG added the ALT-TAB protection, or whether the game always had it and GOG simply maintained it. I do know that ALT-TABbing in this game can cause graphical glitches in this game though - I've seen them myself - so consider yourselves warned!

I've long finished and uninstalled this game. But for the sake of confirming it for others, I'll re-install it and see.

Reinstalled the game. Tried this. Still not working. Also, the disablealttab field wasn't there and I had to create one.

I searched as suggested didn't find the field specified so I added it but still the game refuses to alt-tab. I have Windows 7 not Win xp so path is a bit different but its not working.

Just to ensure I haven't gone totally mad, are you @thebream also using Windows 7 like @kaileeena, or are you on WinXP?

I'm actually regretting suggesting people to add it if it's not there, as I suspect that you may have added it to a place it wasn't supposed to go. As far as I know the GOG version should always have this field, I was just covering my bases but in so doing may have led people down the wrong path...

Anyway, the fact that you couldn't find the specified field (and had to add it) indicates it could possibly be the wrong location - confusingly there are often multiple locations for BG&E settings, but only one of them should have the DISABLEALTTAB entry.

BTW, where did you actually find BG&E if the path was different? On my machine I have the following locations containing BG&E, but they are all not the correct one:

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu2\Programs\GOG.com\Beyond Good and Evil
- this is the start menu location (on Windows XP anyway)

* HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ubisoft\Beyond Good & Evil
- this should exist irrespective of versions.

The only correct entry location (for disablealttab) should be:

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\GOG.com\GOGBEYONDGOODANDEVIL
- this was created by GOG and will not be in any other version
- this entry should contain the following keys and settings:

"EXE"="C:\\games\\GOG.com\\Beyond Good and Evil\\CheckApplication.exe"
"EXEFILE"="CheckApplication.exe"
"PATH"="C:\\games\\GOG.com\\Beyond Good and Evil\\"
"CODE"="GOGBEYONDGOODANDEVIL"
"GAMENAME"="Beyond Good and Evil"
"VER"="1.0.0"
"BUILD"="1"
"INSTALLDATE"="24-08-2013 18:12:20"
"LAUNCHCOMMAND"="C:\\games\\GOG.com\\Beyond Good and Evil\\CheckApplication.exe"
"LAUNCHPARAM"=""
"SAVEGAMEFOLDER"="C:\\games\\GOG.com\\Beyond Good and Evil\\"
"AFFINITY"="true"
"AFFINITYCORE"="1"
"DISABLEALTTAB"="true"

Also, your display will show the name/value pairs in columns on the right of the Registry Editor (in case the equals sign causes confusion here).

Note that all the keys here are in capital letters as well - which seems to be a trademark for GOG keys, as it's not that common. Strictly speaking the registry isn't actually case sensitive, in that you cannot have two keys with the same name but different case (just like the file system - stupid Windows).

Additional hint: search for "BEYONDGOODANDEVIL" (as previously described), and if the keys on the right don't match the above, press F3 to continue the search from that point on. Repeat pushing F3 until you find the location, or you get a message saying you've reached the end of the registry. To be certain you've searched all of it, ensure that you click on root folder (which should be "My Computer" or something similar-sounding) on the top of the left-hand pane prior to beginning the first search (this will guarantee you've searched all folders in the registry).

I still think that the location should be the same across multiple Windows versions, but as I only have XP I can't be 100% certain.

Naturally, the DISABLEALTTAB should be changed to "false", using the instructions I provided earlier.

If anyone manages to find most (or some) of the fields above, but does NOT find the DISABLEALTTAB key entry, or alternatively cannot find that series of keys at all, please let me know. Actually in that case it might be worth flicking the GOG team a message as well, as I'll be out of ideas at that point (and will be confused as this works for me - which is why I want to know if this works for others!).