Alt +Tab behaviour in Gnome

For anyone using GNOME v3, here's what I have done.

I am using vanilla GNOME 3 on Ubuntu 18.04 (that is installing the base version of GNOME not the Ubuntu modified version). I think vanilla GNOME is the same as what RHEL uses too - at least that's what Fedora uses, so the following should work across those systems.

GNOME has two concepts for tabbing - tabbing between applications (the default) and tabbing between windows. Tabbing between applications groups the windows for that application together. I prefer (or at least I am more used to) tabbing between windows (and combined with Alt+Shift+Tab to go backwards).

In GNOME 3 at least this can now be fixed by just configuring the keyboard shortcuts.

1. Go to the regular Settings > Devices > Keyboard > Navigation section.
2. Disable both 'Switch applications' and 'Switch windows'
3. Now neither Alt+Tab nor Super+Tab should work. Possibly do a log out/restart in between (I can't remember)
4. Re-enable 'Switch windows' to be Alt+Tab.

I found that if both 'Switch applications' and 'Switch windows' were enabled then somehow Alt+Tab would still end up switching applications. This at least should be a solid method for guaranteeing that the Alt+Tab works as expected. You can then experiment setting 'Switch applications to Super+Tab.

This is what my keyboard shortcut settings looks like, note the 'Switch applications' at the top and 'Switch windows' at the bottom:

Sounds like something potentially with your keyboard or your installation. I use both of the following in Gnome:

• Alt+Tab to cycle from left to right
• Alt+Shift+Tab to cycle from right to left

This article is Ubuntu specific but should be applicable to your situation on RHEL6 non the less.

gconf-editor

Double check that the preferences are set so that moving right to left is configured correctly for the key combo mentioned above: