Linuxmint 14 Cinnamon 32 bit up to date

The following problem does not occur when I boot into the Gnome Shell Desktop Environment; I only have this problem in Cinnamon.

I installed a Cinnamon extension called 3D App Switcher 3.0.1 (http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/extensions/view/18) which not only didn't work; it also killed my Alt-Tab switching. Alt-Tab worked fine for months before I installed the extension.

By "killed" I mean that repeatedly hitting Alt-Tab no longer cycles through my open windows like it once did. When I first hit Alt-Tab, the panel showing my open windows appears and my current active window is selected, but Alt-Tab and Shift-Alt-Tab do nothing now.

What does work after hitting Alt-Tab is using Alt-LeftArrow or Alt-RightArrow to cycle through my open windows.

It was extremely difficult to uninstall this extension, but I'm rid of it but not its bad effect, viz., repeatedly hitting Alt-Tab or Shift-Alt-Tab now no longer cycles through my open windows. Cinnamon Settings->Keyboard->Keyboard shortcuts->"Cycle through open windows" shows Alt-Tab as the keyboard binding. To add insult to injury, I can't change the keyboard shortcut for "Cycle through open windows" to something else.

So is my only option to reinstall Linuxmint?

Seems like the install of that extension also installed something which may be the culprit, but I have no concrete info that says otherwise. Review the packages installed and see if there is anything which remaps keys.

Another option would be to reinstall the desktop which you're using.

I have no idea how to do that in Linux.
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I rebooted and made Gnome Shell my default. Then I uninstalled cinnamon and everything associated with cinnamon. I rebooted again and reinstalled cinnamon. I rebooted again, setting my default to cinnamon. Alt-Tab is exactly as broken as it was before.

I have heard that Linux is rock solid on the server side. Perhaps that's because it's only used at run level 2. As someone trying to transition to Linux from Window$, I find desktop Linux to be just as unstable, unreliable and downright capricious as Window$.

Guess I'll reinstall Linuxmint on its partition on my internal HD this weekend. Sadly, It won't be the first time I've reinstalled Linuxmint. I had Linuxmint 13 Cinnamon on a portable HD partition. After an update, my ethernet connection disappeared and I couldn't get help at the Linuxmint Forum, so I installed Linuxmint 14 Cinnamon on that portable HD.

I was born too soon. I don't buy Vertu Ti phones so I don't buy Apple computers. Window$ and Linux are not good operating systems for ordinary computer users. There is no OS worth using in 2013.

I've run all the manufacturer hardware diagnostics on my computer and they don't report any problems. Seems like the OSes are at fault.