Full screen games crashing when pressing alt tab or changing resolution

Hi,

Typically you can only ALT + TAB if you've got something to ALT + TAB to. If you've got the game open and nothing else, alt tab won't take you anywhere.

Want to tab to the browser during play, open the browser then launch the game. If you can't tab out of the game press the Windows key. Depending on how the game is being run (Full screen or Windows Borderless) you'll either be able to tab to the browser
you opened or you'll need to press the Windows key. The Windows key will either display your desktop Start Menu at the bottom of the screen or take you to the desktop.

I'm a PC gamer too and the above is what I do to get back to the desktop or go to another application.

Hello Norwegian_Waffles,

Thank you for reaching out to us about your issue!

We have a couple of questions to ask before we continue to investigate the issue.

When the game "force tabs" you out, what is happening exactly? Are you saying that when you enter full screen, your game is minimized and you're forced to the desktop?

When you're entering full screen, are you doing so manually by pressing the alt + enter key combination, or are you changing the settings in the game?

Looking forward to hearing back,

XBF Dom

Hello, robin77777. Thanks for reaching out. I'm Lucas, an Independent Advisor and Microsoft Xbox user.

First, let's try to see if basic settings are ok:

Check your Game Bar settings. Press the Start button, then choose Settings. Go to Gaming > Xbox Game bar, then turn on Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game bar.

When playing a game, press the Windows logo key + G to open Game Bar. Select the Enable gaming features for this app to record gameplay when trying to use gaming features such as broadcasting or capturing.

Your game may be running in full-screen mode. If it's not in full-screen mode, let me know.

Also, what exact do you mean by "tab out"? Is it pressing Alt+Tab to change windows and then getting back to the game?

Sorry, Troubleshooting. I googled for similar problems by anyone else. Alt tabbed in and out. Full Screen Not Full Screen Full Screen. All the Function Keys. Problem still persists

Just to clarify - if you alt tab out of a full screen game to a window that's
not covering your entire wallpaper (i.e not maximised), is the game minimised? Or is the game still visually running in the background for you, blocking your view of the wallpaper?

Hi,

If I alt + tab from game that's running full screen then my game is minimised to the Taskbar. I must remind you that unless you have another application either running on the desktop or also minimised, alt + tab won't take you anywhere. If I hold the keys
down, my game shows in a small window in the middle of the screen. When I let go of the buttons it goes back to full screen.

On pretty much all of my games, if I press the Windows Key on my keyboard, it automatically displays the Start menu and my game is minimised completely.

While a game is minimised, it still uses system resources such as in RAM, CPU and GPU cycles.

There is nothing special about my PC configuration. Standard Windows Settings. I built the PC myself it's an i7 8700, 16GB and an RTX 2080 graphics card.