I am running Xubuntu 16.04 LTS. I tried another app switcher (Skippy-XD). In order for that to work, I reassigned Alt + Tab to launch Skippy-XD instead of the default xfce4 app switcher. I did not like skippy-xd however, so I uninstalled it. Now Alt Tab doesn't do anything. Restoring the default hotkeys in the Settings Manager does not solve the problem.
How do I bind Alt Tab to launch the xfce4 app switcher again?
Easier method: Settings Manager > Window Manager > Keyboard tab. Change the "Cycle Windows" shortcut to Alt-Tab by either double-clicking on the entry or pressing the "Edit" key. When you do either, you will be prompted with a dialog box to press the keyboard combination - press "Alt+Tab".
I found the solution.
Open ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml
Look for the lines that have to do with Alt Tab, there should be two, make sure the first one looks like this:
<property name="<Alt>Tab" type="empty">
And the second one like this:
<property name="<Alt>Tab" type="string" value="cycle_windows_key"/>
Save the file and log off and back in.
Try xbindkeys. You can read more about it in a question here:
How can I change what keys on my keyboard do
This worked for me to override a key binding that I didn't like on ubuntu. There are also many more options for key-binding modification in that post, so consider those solutions as well.
