Windows 10: 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.

:)

 

Keeping Game Fullscreen

When I have a game on fullscreen mode on Windows 10 and then I switch to a different desktop and then come back to the game's desktop, the game becomes minimized and takes a while for it to go back into it. Is there any way to keep it from minimizing when
switching desktops so I can get back to the game instantly without waiting ~10 seconds?

Thank you

 

ALT+TAB to desktop no longer an option?

I used to be able to ALT+TAB back to my desktop and have all windows minimized on that monitor using windows 8.1. Now I can't do this with windows 10 and say when I'm playing a game , I cant see my desktop to do another function so i have to close out
of the game and minimize all windows that are in front of the desktop because ALT+TAB doesn't give me an option to go straight to the desktop. I feel like there is just some option that I just don't have checked in my settings and need a bit of help.

 

try running SFC /scannow and see what happens
are you running some citrix stuff like citrix receiver? try also to remove the game launch icons from the desktop *Wink

 

If you can try to edit the game configuration to match your desktop resolution. The problem is in the new Windows 10 high dpi scaling.

 

I'm not running any citrix stuff, and the only icon on my desktop is the recycle bin (empty). I'm still working on the sfc /scannow, so I'll be sure to update once I run it.

I have all my games set to match my desktop resolution :/

 

Try turning of the scaling in compatibility settings. This and the insane slow downs after the latest windows 10 update is almost convincing me to return to windows 8....

 

it didn't slow down for me at all.. not trying to go off topic but you should try doing disk cleanup and deleting the old windows.old folder.. would probably improve your performance.

 

@BrandonR188 I already did but thanks. I opened a topic about it n case anyone has any idea what else I could try...

Game performance problems after update 586.11 - Windows 10 Forums

 

did you tried to remove the game icons from desktop? theres some random crashes/minimizations when you "mouseover" the game icons itself?

 

I don't have any game icons on my desktop. The only icon I have on my desktop is the recycle bin

 

install new game for window *Biggrin

 

Do you mean the game files might be corrupted or something with an upgrade to windows 10? Unfortunately the OS that we bought for this desktop is windows 10, it hasn't had anything else on it. So all my games were installed with windows 10 as the OS.

 

I have this happen with several games I play full screen. I have zero icons on my desktop. Sometimes I can play without issues for hours. Sometimes it will minimize the game window about every 30 seconds. I've shut down just about everything possible and it still does this. Testing various compatibility mode settings has no effect either.

Game files are not corrupted. Have run full scans on all system files and the catalog as well. Zero change.

 

So, my update is that SFC /scannow didn't find anything, and the issue has nothing to do with launch icons. The only icon I have on my desktop is the recycle bin, and I keep my launch icons on my taskbar. I tried hiding it and seeing how that would affect the issue, but the games still minimize, even when I'm using a controller and the pointer is "frozen" in the top left of my screen.