Windows 10: Stop games from auto-minimizing to desktop?

Discus and support Stop games from auto-minimizing to desktop? in Windows 10 Gaming to solve the problem; This issue has popped up within the last few weeks and I've never had it happen before in the years I've played games. While I am playing a game,... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Gaming' started by MPhillips85, Dec 29, 2020.

  1. Stop games from auto-minimizing to desktop?


    This issue has popped up within the last few weeks and I've never had it happen before in the years I've played games. While I am playing a game, anytime I leave the game idle for a minute or two as get up and walk away from my desk it automatically minimizes to the desktop. I've noticed this happens sometimes if the game is paused i.e. hit Esc key where if it's still "playing" it doesn't seem to have the issue. The games all run in fullscreen. This has happened to various games made by various companies so I'm thinking it has something to do with windows. I don't have a screensaver and the monitor is supposed to go to sleep after 10 minutes so that most likely isn't the cause,


    So far I've done the following:


    1 Updated Windows

    2 Updated Graphics Drivers Nvidia

    3 "sfc /scannow" in an elevated command prompt it says it found something and fixed it but I don't know if it was related

    4 Disable Game Mode

    5 Disabled Notifications


    I got it to stop somehow for a day or two but it started back up and I'm left scratching my head again. Any ideas?

    :)
     
    MPhillips85, Dec 29, 2020
    #1

  2. Games minimizing to desktop

    This is just a heads up in case you're suddenly finding your games minimizing to the desktop within the last couple of days. Up till yesterday, all my games ran great. Today, much frustration as games would open for 2 seconds then minimize, no matter which
    game I opened. The only thing different from yesterday to today was the cumulative update for Windows 10 version 1803 for x64 based systems (KB4340918) that installed yesterday. So, I uninstalled that update and everything is working back to normal. Prior
    to that, I had checked to make sure all my drivers were up to date and I confess, there were a couple that needed to be done, so I can't say absolutely for sure that the update was the cause, but if you're having the same trouble maybe this will be helpful.

    Happy Gaming!

    Vikki
     
    VikkiDavis1, Dec 29, 2020
    #2
  3. Johan45 Win User
    AMD FX OC'ers Club

    That's what the auto setting will do since you're over the 1333 mark it jumps to the next step which isn't listed or officially supported I assume by that ram.

    At this point though I would suggest dropping the multi one step or .5 so that we can get something stable and possibly take the heat issue out of the picture for now.
     
    Johan45, Dec 29, 2020
    #3
  4. Snowie Win User

    Stop games from auto-minimizing to desktop?

    Windows 10 Minimizing Games to Desktop


    Hi! I've had my custom built desktop for a few months now. It has Windows 10 Pro installed as the OS. The issue I am having is that when I try to play games in fullscreen mode, they will periodically be minimized to the desktop. It appears they are still running in the background, as I can hear the game sound even when it is minimized. I can re-open the games as I could if I had just tabbed out, but within a few minutes they will minimize again. I have tried disabling background programs such as Skype, Curse Voice, Origin, Steam, Windows Firewall, and Bitdefender, but the games will still minimize. If I have the games in windowed fullscreen mode, they will not actually minimize, but from time to time the edges of the window will be visible (as if I had tabbed out) until I click into the game again.

    Obviously playing games in windowed fullscreen is a sort of band-aid for the issue, but not all games have the option of windowed fullscreen, so I can't just wait for a fix to come up anymore. I have looked for solutions to this problem, but haven't found anything that helps.

    On a possibly related side note, when using Open Broadcaster Software to record gameplay, OBS will record only a black screen in "game capture" mode. I have to use "monitor capture" mode to force it to always record everything that happens on my screen. This might be related to the games minimizing, or might be something completely different. I only added this in case it was relevant to the games minimizing.
     
    Snowie, Dec 29, 2020
    #4
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Stop games from auto-minimizing to desktop?

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