For awhile (5-10 minutes) everything appeared to function. Now, the game crashes to the desktop without an apology or even an explanation whenever I push TAB.

1. Shame on you Bethesda for preying on and defrauding thousands of paying customers.
2. After offering many search terms to Google, I was blessed with results showing other people have this problem. Unfortunately NOBODY HAS RESPONDED TO ANYONE MENTIONING THIS PROBLEM.
3. How the ************************* do I fix this?!?!

push pushing press pressing tab close closes crash crashes desktop ctd skyrim pc

Erm whats the issue again? I see bashing after a complaint on tab crashing game. First I've seen of that being a 'HUGE' issue, after lurking these forums. Hold off on last 3 items in this. hmm?

As well your google search. Just did 1. Got a YAHOO answers pop. 3 people.

Have you changed your key settings? any mods? any ini tweaks?

I have no crash, but after the latest update, my tab button is no longer functional.

The game crashes when you push the TAB key on your keyboard. I can't make it any clearer. Yes there are .ini tweaks, and like I said everything worked fine (with these tweaks) for a completely random and arbitrary amount of time (10 minutes?) and through several restarts. Then, suddenly, TAB hereafter crashes skyrim to the desktop.

Renaski if you don't have a solution don't comment. I've already seen everything on google about this including that yahoo post you're talking about. The 3 answers were "don't push tab".

Be more specific. * MY * Tab key doesn't do anything of the kind. Provide normal diagnostic data instead of all the teeth-gnashing.

Good news, I found the cause: Bethesda forgot to develop the game AT ALL for the PC. All the classic signs of a pure rushed port.

Also, this appears to result after I fix (alter) the .ini (no, Bethesda has not payed me for my efforts). Deleting all 3 .ini files makes the launcher reset them, causing the game to svck terribly again but it also makes the game not crash when you press TAB.

So, cause found, problem not solved, back to square one. Still need the .ini fixes (mouse input lag from rushed console port, fov causes dizziness from rushed console port, and gamma ridiculously low from lazy (r etarded?) devs not including a gamma setting).

Also searched these forums for a possible answer, sadly I wasnt able to find one for you.

Are you running vanilla, 1.1 patch or 1.2? Could be useful info.

Also detailed mapping of what 'tweaks' were made.

Hmm that is interesting... for me the problem was that pressing the M (map key) or accessing the map via Tab ---> Map would consistently cause an instant crash to desktop without any warning whatsoever..

It turns out that it was because i implemented this ini tweak (that goes into the end of Skyrim.ini) from tweakguide at geforce.com that disables blood splatters on your screen when you take damage...

[ScreenSplatter]
bBloodSplatterEnabled=0

The solution was just to delete those lines, and hey presto, no more CTDs and the map works again.. Maybe unrelated to your problem OP but thought i would just give a heads up to others...

Also this was a 1.1 patched installation with many other mods enabled...

Solar got it. Pressing TAB crashes to desktop was caused by repairing the .ini. I am testing some fixes to see what I can get away with and will post back.

OK, whatever ini modification fixes the mouse input lag is the one which causes the crash when pushing TAB.

Sadly, this could have been preempted if the devs would have ALLOWED raw mouse input. It would have even saved them time because it would have meant LESS programming. But they will go out of their way to make it as clean as possible for the consoles at the expense of paying customers on the PC.