How to make ESC key exit the alt+tab menu instead of switching tabs

so I'm on windows 10 (just moved from mac) and if I have say Tab "A" and Tab "B" opened I can press alt+tab then it will highlight tab B which is good, if I release alt+tab or press enter it will switch to the highlighted tab, aka tab B. All good so far

now say I pressed alt-tab but before releasing I decided I wanted to stay on tab A, or I just clicked it to check other opening tabs for say any red lines in terminal or so, so I want to close it, on mac I used to simply press "ESC" and it closes it, but here on windows when I press ESC it acts as if I pressed enter and just opens the current highlighted tab (Tab B) instead of the one I'm on (Tab A), I can't find any shortcut that exits the alt+tab menu without opening the highlighted tab (unless I move my cursor or keep switching tabs till I return back which is very Inefficient)

Does anyone know any solution?