Windows 10: How can I play windowed games with the forced taskbar changes in Windows 11?

There are several problems with playing windowed games in windows 11 with the forced taskbar changes. Has happened ever since Windows 11 came out.First, if you snap the game window to one half side of the screen then move the mouse around the bottom of the window, bubble tooltips from the taskbar appear and flicker at the bottom overlaying anything in game. Things like volume, network, battery show up. Would you put up with playing the newly acquired MS Call of Duty 2022 on your XBox where your health and ammo could only be viewed some of the time when the UI was working properly? This can hap

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DirectX update forcing games to play windowed

Hey everyone,
My cousin is having an issue with his Ideapad y480 laptop. He has had sucess in the past playing games like borderlands 2 on fullscreen, but apparently after a directX update, it forces games to be played in windowed mode. So games like Natural Selection 2, he can't even access at the moment, as it forces fullscreen, and no launch options for windowed mode.


*Toast :toast:

 

Taskbar automatically pops up while playing games

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand that you get the Taskbar while playing games in Full screen mode. Ideally, some games allow you to hide the Taskbar while playing games and some will show the Taskbar by default. We would like to know, if this issue occurs with all the
games or only with one particular game.



If you are facing this issue with one particular game, then there must be some in game setting that you might have to change. If you are facing this issue with all the games, then you can try one workaround and see if that helps.



The workaround is to close Windows Explorer process while you are playing game. This will allow you to play the game uninterruptedly. However, when you End the Windows Explorer process, all the windows that are running in the background will be closed,
which allow you to play the game without any interruption of the Taskbar. When you want all the windows back, you can restart the Windows Explorer process.



Please follow the steps mentioned below to do the same:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc key while playing game, this will open
   Task Manager.
   
2. Look for Windows Explorer process, right click on it and select
   End Task.
   
3. When you want the windows back, open Task Manager by following
   Step 1, and click on File.
   
4. Click on Run new task, type
   explorer.exe and click on OK. Windows Explorer will be restarted and you will have all the windows back again.
   

Please reply with the status of the issue, we will be glad to help you further.



Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Unable to play farmville game in IE 11

Hi Donna,

Please answer these questions to assist you better.

• Do you face same issue in Microsoft Edge too?
• Is the issue specific to Farmville game?

I suggest you to follow the steps below and check if that helps.

Step 1: Check if the Add-on are causing the issue.

Manage add-ons in Internet Explorer 11

Step 2: Let us check if cookies might be the reason for the issue.

Delete and manage cookies

Step 3: If the above steps didn't help in resolving the issue then I suggest you to reset Internet Explorer.

Change or reset Internet Explorer settings

Disclaimer: The Reset Internet Explorer Settings feature might reset security settings or privacy settings that you added to the list of Trusted Sites. The Reset Internet Explorer
Settings feature might also reset parental control settings. We recommend that you note these sites before you use the
Reset Internet Explorer Settings feature.

Note: Also install all pending Windows updates in your PC and check.

Do let us know if you need any further assistance. Thank you.