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Game alt-tabbing or flashing desktop [merged]


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@slayerking.3581 said:Found the problem, It's the new focus assist crap they have put into the new winblows update. If you go to settings>system>focus assist and turn it all off, it does it much quicker now instead of sitting there for 10 seconds or so on the desktop.

just like everybody else affected, it only started after the win10 latest update.This hasnt fixed it for me, but it only tabs to desktop for a fraction of a second now instead of several seconds now

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@"Dying Oblivion.8296" said:Gotta love this....

http://img.techpowerup.org/180521/1803.png

Still no response.

You may not be aware that due to high volume, tickets may take 10 days or more currently.Also, there is no current 'fix' (from the Devs) to this problem; just a request from the Devs to send logs/information.

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@"Wraithclaw.9081" said:I've just started having this issue today as well after a windows 10 update.Is anyone able to post a list of the current suggested fixes? (a summary/dot points with links would be wonderful)There is just way too many posts to sort through ^_^The issue seems to happen more to me on first game load, less so between loading different areas.

The only "fix" that works is using Windowed Fullscreen instead of Fullscreen, that way all the issues go away.However, if you must use Fullscreen for performance issues then there is no universal fix available, yet.If the black screen takes a very long time, then you can disable Focus Assist, type Focus Assist in search, and set it to off. This will make the black screen take only a few seconds, with Focus Assist on it takes considerably longer. Doesn't solve the issue completely but it does make it more tolerable.

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@GM Magister.8736 said:

@"Rayti.6531" said:
suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.
  • In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update:
    DIS
    able the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)
  • Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Thanks for posting this here, Rayti! I missed that Reddit post, so I'll see if this works for the folks I'm working with in support tickets. :)

Will that "disable fullscreen optimization" effect fps in any way?

Anyhow, I had the Windows 10 update a couple of days ago and I'm having the same issue as everyone else here. Since the update the game takes about 10-15 seconds longer to launch to the title screen, and between every loading screen it's flashing back to the desktop, although still showing the GW2 cursor & playing the music, which is making loading screens a lot longer than before the update. Have updated Nvidia drivers and tried rolling back to older drivers but to no effect. I've tried turning off the "Focused" notification thing, which has helped reduce the time that the loading screen flashes to the desktop, but it hasn't got rid of it from happening. Will submit a ticket through the support site as suggested in an earlier post.

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@killermanjaro.5670 said:

@"Rayti.6531" said:
suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.
  • In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update:
    DIS
    able the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)
  • Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Thanks for posting this here, Rayti! I missed that Reddit post, so I'll see if this works for the folks I'm working with in support tickets. :)

Will that "disable fullscreen optimization" effect fps in any way?

Anyhow, I had the Windows 10 update a couple of days ago and I'm having the same issue as everyone else here. Since the update the game takes about 10-15 seconds longer to launch to the title screen, and between every loading screen it's flashing back to the desktop, although still showing the GW2 cursor & playing the music, which is making loading screens a lot longer than before the update. Have updated Nvidia drivers and tried rolling back to older drivers but to no effect. I've tried turning off the "Focused" notification thing, which has helped reduce the time that the loading screen flashes to the desktop, but it hasn't got rid of it from happening. Will submit a ticket through the support site as suggested in an earlier post.

This is really tricky to answer with certainty, as it's going to depend on a lot of different factors with your setup and circumstances. I know for some people, disabling fullscreen optimizations leads to better FPS while for others it causes some more lag.

It's worth trying it out and reporting back here (or, even better, to a support ticket) to let us know if it at least stopped the alt-tabbing issue from occurring. If it makes the game less playable for you, however, I totally understand and, unfortunately, you'll probably need to pick your poison until we can find a more preferable solution - deal with the alt-tabbing, or take the lower FPS.

I really do hope we can find a proper workaround for this soon. It seems like it's really annoying. :(

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@GM Magister.8736 said:

This is really tricky to answer with certainty, as it's going to depend on a lot of different factors with your setup and circumstances. I know for some people, disabling fullscreen optimizations leads to better FPS while for others it causes some more lag.

It's worth trying it out and reporting back here (or, even better, to a support ticket) to let us know if it at least stopped the alt-tabbing issue from occurring. If it makes the game less playable for you, however, I totally understand and, unfortunately, you'll probably need to pick your poison until we can find a more preferable solution - deal with the alt-tabbing, or take the lower FPS.

I really do hope we can find a proper workaround for this soon. It seems like it's really annoying. :(

I did some research regarding this issue and when I use Reshade the issue is not present. (Tested with latest version as of this post v3.3.2)

I play the game in windowed fullscreen myself so I don't have the issue but though to share my findings.

Maybe people with issue could try it out, no shaders need to be downloaded/used for it to work. It might also affect performance however it is some information that can be used to properly find a solution to the issue.

EDIT: I would like to let Anet know of some technical stuff on what might cause the issue but I don't see creating a support ticket to be the correct solution nor post in here. Please let me know if a general support ticket should be used or if I should provide details in a different matter.

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@GM Magister.8736 said:

@"Rayti.6531" said:
suggestion from "eragon03" on reddit fixed it for me.
  • In case you enabled it when asked for it after the last Win 10 update:
    DIS
    able the option that prevents notifications from showing while you play fullscreen games (clicking the notification symbol in the lower right corner of your screen while having a game open should give you the option directly)
  • Go to the folder containing your GW2 executable, right-click the GW2 EXE file (presumably the 64-bit one for most people), go to properties -> compatibility, and check "disable fullscreen optimization"

I hope this helps some of you getting rid of the flashing to desktop (or at least improve it)...

Thanks for posting this here, Rayti! I missed that Reddit post, so I'll see if this works for the folks I'm working with in support tickets. :)

Will that "disable fullscreen optimization" effect fps in any way?

Anyhow, I had the Windows 10 update a couple of days ago and I'm having the same issue as everyone else here. Since the update the game takes about 10-15 seconds longer to launch to the title screen, and between every loading screen it's flashing back to the desktop, although still showing the GW2 cursor & playing the music, which is making loading screens a lot longer than before the update. Have updated Nvidia drivers and tried rolling back to older drivers but to no effect. I've tried turning off the "Focused" notification thing, which has helped reduce the time that the loading screen flashes to the desktop, but it hasn't got rid of it from happening. Will submit a ticket through the support site as suggested in an earlier post.

This is really tricky to answer with certainty, as it's going to depend on a lot of different factors with your setup and circumstances. I know for some people, disabling fullscreen optimizations leads to better FPS while for others it causes some more lag.

It's worth trying it out and reporting back here (or, even better, to a support ticket) to let us know if it at least stopped the alt-tabbing issue from occurring. If it makes the game less playable for you, however, I totally understand and, unfortunately, you'll probably need to pick your poison until we can find a more preferable solution - deal with the alt-tabbing, or take the lower FPS.

I really do hope we can find a proper workaround for this soon. It seems like it's really annoying. :(

Thanks for the reply. I've given it a brief try and it does seem to stop the loading screens flashing back to the desktop, but instead it flashes to a plain black screen for about the same duration (or maybe fractionally quicker), so I'll run it like this for a while and see how it goes fps wise. I've put it all in a support ticket with the log file and Game Advisor files attached as requested, so hopefully that'll give some information that might help find a fix in the future.

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I couldn't see if anyone brought this up, so sorry if it's been said already, but I think that it's less an issue with the loadscreens and more with what's happening behind it, mainly for 2 reasons.

  1. The loadscreen does show up a couple of seconds before alt-tabbing, and again for a split second before coming back.
  2. When travelling via waypoint on the same map or switching instance, there is no alt-tabbing.This makes me think that the problem happens when the game loads a new map, so what is loaded when you arrive at this new map and doesn't change until you leave?Still can't understand why would any of that conflict with Windows, aside from it just being Windows.Also I could be completly wrong about all this, just leaving my observations, that's all. ;)
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Just wanted to share my finds when looking into this. I used a tool called Windows Focus Logger to try and find out the reason for the game to lose focus/alt-tabbing.What i found was that a process called " ShellExperienceHost " and also " SearchUI " made GW2 exe lose focus for a few seconds. SearchUI process can be disabled but ShellExperienceHost cannot be as far as i know as it is required to run windows.

How to actually fix this problem i cannot solve, but this is the cause i found. Feel free to use the tool urselfs and see if you have the same results adminscope.com/downloads/window-focus-logger-gui/

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@Evueimeimei.5918 said:

@Death Slayer.1468 said:I did some research regarding this issue and when I use Reshade the issue is not present. (Tested with latest version as of this post v3.3.2)

I'm currently using an older version of Reshade (2.0), but I'm not seeing a difference with this issue whether or not I use it.

I see I did some further testing and the issue seems to go away temporarily when changing from windowed fullscreen to fullscreen, but then comes back again after a alt-tab / game restart. :(

@"Bash.9602" said:Just wanted to share my finds when looking into this. I used a tool called Windows Focus Logger to try and find out the reason for the game to lose focus/alt-tabbing.What i found was that a process called " ShellExperienceHost " and also " SearchUI " made GW2 exe lose focus for a few seconds. SearchUI process can be disabled but ShellExperienceHost cannot be as far as i know as it is required to run windows.

How to actually fix this problem i cannot solve, but this is the cause i found. Feel free to use the tool urselfs and see if you have the same results adminscope.com/downloads/window-focus-logger-gui/

These processes does not cause any interaction with my window focus. I have disabled Focus assist in windows 10 build 1803csrss gains focus last since that was when I killed the game.

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Got it since a week, and seeing for how long people have this problem, I doubt it gets fixed anytime soon, like the bad connection issue on Europe server some times. Seeing how GW2 is the only game the problem keeps happening, I'd guess as customer its not my job to find a fix or workaround. And no, I wont try all em so called "makes it better" suggestions or play in windowed mode, cuz thats not what I payed my collectors edition for, or now and then purchase Gems. I know its not easy, it takes time, but as said the problem isnt really new, and with the windows update beeing release in batches, the amount of people beeing hit by it will only grow.

edit just looked back, OP started this on january 2. 2018, see what I mean...

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@"Krieger.7935" said:

edit just looked back, OP started this on january 2. 2018, see what I mean...

This is probably due to multiple threads being merged that appeared to be related by one of the moderators. When I stepped in to begin replying, this thread began with this message from April 30th. The "first" post in this thread now does seem similar in that the game is randomly alt-tabbing, but the issue that I am tackling at this point in time and that seems to have only started after the April 2018 Windows update causes the game to minimize only during loading screens. Apologies for the confusion.

In regards to your other statements of not wanting to try what we've already stated are only temporary fixes and not our final, official ArenaNet solution - I get it, they aren't preferred. But the fact that these do stop the issue from happening for certain individuals is valuable information for our programmers and for our support ticket discussions, since it can help us get a picture of what is causing this to happen.

We aren't done working on this issue. I apologize that it's taking some time for us to find a permanent solution or client-side fix, but for now these are the things we've found that can work to patch up the issue in the meantime.

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I can say I come across something:The issue started happening to me today, after I updated windows 10. I went into settings in game after I checked some desktop settings. I noticed this:I had been changed to "Fullscreen" view mode. I normally run Windowed fullscreen.Once I changed back to Windowed Fullscreen, the issue stopped and I was able to change to another map without the "Alt-tab" issue.

Cyberpower PC, MSI graphics, windows 10, with a 5% DPI Radeon scaling to fit a 32" TV.

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@Odinens.5920 said:Wow, Windows 10 sounds like a huge headache. Glad I've refused to update to it so far. I'll stick with 7 for the time being,

actually its the other way around, this is not a huge issue, more of an annoyance and windows 10 is very stable. there is no issues in playing the game, the updates have not slowed down system performance at all.

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Same issue here after updating windows 10. I've tried disabling Focus Assist and made it much better though it didn't fix the problem. Instead of flashing to desktop for a few seconds while on a loading screen, now it only does it for a fraction of a second.

Overall no big deal though it's worth reporting it.

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