Minimize of Office App different in alt-tab order. Fixes?

[BillH]

Problem:
Since I have my most recent laptop (Windows XP/Pro, Office 2003/Pro),
whenever I minimize Outlook or Word, instead of going to the end of the
alt-tab (or Z-Order) list, it simply goes into "second place". A subsequent
alt-tab does not go to the expected application, but rather pops Outlook or
Word back up. This only occurs with Outlook and Word, not with any other
application.

My previous laptop had Windows 2000/Office 2000, and did not have this
problem.

Rant:
This mucks me up at least a dozen times a day, as I only rarely use my mouse
and am always using alt-tab to switch between apps (I am a touch-typist). It
is irritating the %&$ out of me and it must be irritating at least tens of
thousands of other touch-typists. I don't understand why there is no
knowledge base article on this.

Alone in the process of resetting my password, so that I could post here, I
have tripped on this problem twice.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Maybe the alt-tab replacement PowerToy would help
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

 

[BillH]

I don't want yet another icon and fancy doodads that take up lots of process
space and cycles. I already have way too many of those.

I just want things to work the way they are supposed to!

So I wrote myself a little program that slaps any unruly minimized windows
to the back of the z-list. The program has no icon, and even though I kept
the size down, it still takes up some of that precious process space and
cycles... *sigh*.

I guess what I really want, is for MS to acknowledge this problem, that must
be aggravating many thousands of users, and fix it in an update.