|
Why is it that when switching back from a full screen program (like a game,) all of the other (non-full screen) application windows are screwed up?
They will switch monitors, some of them will be maximized when before, they weren't. And most of them will be resized and moved seemingly randomly.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
I don't know, but it has always been like that, and (extrapolating from the past) it seems like it always will be.
It usually helps to pick the "borderless windowed"-mode (if it exists) instead of "exclusive fullscreen". There are even some tools to force that mode onto games that don't have it built-in.
|
|
|
|
|
That's a good idea. I think I'll try that. 
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
Games can run optimally with higher FPS in "exclusive fullscreen" mode. For me, I do not bother because the maximum refresh rate of my monitor is only 60.
|
|
|
|
|
I have noticed that too in other situations like when switching a laptop to an external monitor of a different resolution. My guess is there are some weird sizing messages sent during the transition but I have never bothered to find out. One of these days I should.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
|
|
|
|
|
Maybe M$ should do its job and fix it 
Press F1 for help or google it.
Greetings from Germany
|
|
|
|
|
I agree fully but this is a case where I think they would say there is no problem. "That behavior is by design" is the phrase they like to use.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
|
|
|
|
|
M$ forever ... 
Press F1 for help or google it.
Greetings from Germany
|
|
|
|
|
From the few times I'v had this problem I have noticed 2 things:
- it only happens when you have monitors with different resolutions
- it happens when you have the "scaling" or "zooming" (or whatever it is called) activated on one off your screens
I'm not sure but I think the second one is the key one, or both need to be true.
I haven't fully tested this tho since I rarely have this.
But maybe it helps you out a bit 
Tom
|
|
|
|
|
In addition to what already was told about different monitors and zooms or so.
Even with only one monitor there are sometimes weird things happen.
That's because full Screen does not necessarily mean full resolution.
I.e. some games are full screen but in older resolutions like 800x600 or 1024x768.
If you usually use 1920x1680 then the graphic card / monitor manager has to switch up and down depending on what is actively focused.
If you have an app that is not maximized but is using a bigger area than the full screen game resolution... it reacts weirder as it would have been maximized from the beginning.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
This.
I'm late to this thread, but for some reason my RSS reader marked it as unread, and I didn't remember going through it.
What you've described above matches my experience as well. If my desktop is running at 1920x1080, but a game switches fullscreen but at 1280x720 (for example), then the windows that were already opened on the desktop, and the icons on the desktop themselves, get resized/moved around to fit 1280x720 when the game takes over (if they don't fit the 1280x720 area starting from the top-left corner), and while the desktop resolution is restored back when exiting the game, the icons/windows don't follow.
Everybody passes the blame around - it's not an app's responsibility to restore the desktop layout when it exits, and once items have been moved/resized to fit the lower resolution, those new sizes/positions get committed, and no window manager that I know of (including anything on Linux) thinks it's its job to undo that.
By now it's been years I've played nothing but one game, which happens to run at the same resolution as my desktop (native 4K), and I haven't encountered that problem since. I have zero doubt that's the key.
|
|
|
|
|
Because Highlander and DirectX. There can be only one who has the screen context at a time, all others must detect that they lost access to it and reinitialize and redraw when they get it back.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
Eh, what's Highlander? Is that the code name for the Desktop Window Manager?
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
You are pulling my leg, right? It's the code word for one head's length shorter: There can be only one.[^]
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
Ah, I see. I thought you were drawing a distinction between two different mechanisms for painting to the screen. 
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
|
|
|
|
|
It is the same game as always. When two programs use the same resources, in this case the video memory and the GPU, there must be some kind of mutual exclusion mechanism. otherwise you will have race conditions or deadlocks. DirectX is quite radical. The Desktop Manager looses all rights to access to the screen and has to wait until it gets the context back. Then it's time to reinitialize and redraw everything. More than one monitor does not make it easier. A lot of games suffer from that problem as well. It took Bethesda until Skyrim to get that right without occasional glitches or deadlocks.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
Lame answer, but when the program gains the context, it needs to save off the original context so that it can restore the original context when it loses context.
|
|
|
|
|
It does not work that way. You don't get any chance to save anything. You are informed that you just lost the context and from then on all graphics related calls will fail. by the way, how do you save a graphics processor? Don't call me lame. I'm just the messenger. Talk about it with Mickeysoft.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
Accepted. My answer was based on screen context memory, which is why it was lame. Well answered!
|
|
|
|
|
Richard Andrew x64 wrote: Windows
That's why!
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
|
|
|
|
|
Resolution. Windows, sadly, doesn't remember windows per-resolution. When the full-screen app changes the screen resolution, things get bad.
Run the full-screen app in your desktop resolution. Or a higher one. But not a lower one.
|
|
|
|
|
Pity some games can't get higher resolutions and playing them in windowed mode is a PITA.
That's why, when I play, I usually don't have any other stuff open, or if open minimized in the tray.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
I get this type of stuff when using my work VM from home connected with Citrix WS. Usually works pretty swell, full screen, with 2 monitors. The other day I had been reading a page for 2 minutes, hadn't touched my keyboard/mouse. Suddenly, the 16 windows that were minimized, reappeared in a cascading fashion that made it seem like the thing was haunted or someone was dickin around with my rig. 
|
|
|
|
|
In my opinion, Microsoft hasn't had multimonitor right since Win 7. I think their focus on managing touch screens in Win 8 and 10 had them forget how to manage more than one monitor properly.
|
|
|
|
|
I don't see this with the applications I run. I suspect it's primarily a game issue and frankly, game developers don't care because to fix this would take them more time to get the next best thing released.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
