Aero peek is actually pretty damn useful to tell which program window you’re tabbing into — but the delay is a good few seconds.
I found a SuperUser post that explains how to set this delay.
http://superuser.com/questions/45259/windows-7-alttab-transparent-windows-effect-delay
Set a registry key at:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AltTab.
In that key, create the following DWORD value: LivePreview_ms and set it to the delay (in milliseconds) of the first live preview.
I set mine to 1 (0 doesn’t work) and it’s instant!