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.

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!).

Thanks for detailed reply. I contacted GOG support and they are awesome I have to say. Here is the reply for any is interested in removing the alt-tab disable:

Please go to the game's directory (default: C:\GOG Games\Beyond Good and Evil), Open the Notepad and enter:
sdbinst -u gog_beyond_good_and_evil.sdb

Save the file as remove.bat in the game's folder, right-click on it and select to "Run as administrator".