Alt Tabbing Crashes the PC.

When Im playing ArmA, I often need to minimize to check x-fires, teamspeak, youtube etc...

To minimze, I use Alt+Tab, and half of the time this works fine with no problems.

However, often when I hit alt+tab the game window stays open, but mouse control goes onto the desktop. Essentially, the ArmA II screen stays open, but the cursor is controlling the desktop. When this happens it is often impossible for me to close the game without restarting my PC.

I get similar issues with other minimizing controls, such as Cntrl+Alt+Delete.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I might fix this, or another way in which I might minimize the game without shutting it down?

Thanks,

Leving.

G.I.V.E S.Y.S.TE.M. S.P.E.C.S. & OS.

I'm Alt-tabbing in Win 7 64 bit with 4 GB ram, it is instant. When the game crashes you sometimes lose control over the active windows, and curson migrates to background. In that case, alt-tab some more. :D Or use ALT+F4 to close active windows, also, when the game CTD, the crash dialog becomes active window, even if you do not see it, so press Enter to select the option to close the app in the dialog.

You can also play in windowed mode, setting resolution @ your monitor's native, or 10-15% less.

When it crashes I do hit alt+ tab like 20 times again, sometimes it fixes it, sometimes it doesn't.

Alt+ F4 has never worked.

I will try hitting enter, and the windowed mode - even though I think it is already at optimum settings.

Btw Im on Windows XP, 4GB ram, 8800 GTX GFX.

Thanks for the help.

Mine won't alt-tab either (doesn't crash, but just freezes until I alt-tab back).

A bit of an annoyance, but just one of those things I live with.

If I wanted perfection I'd be playing OPFP2 on a Mac. (j/k)

I have the exact same problem (sometimes), so now when I'm mission editing, I run the game with -window option. This leaves the taskbar visible so no more Alt-Tabbing. It's not a fix, but a really good workaround.

yeah this worked a treat. The windowed mode is indeed the best way around this problem, especially if you are into mission making and need to check how to do things on google all the time. lol.

Thanks Chaps,

Leving.

Hmm i can ALT+TAB fine on my machine without an issue (XP)

IIRC when i come back to the game it is fine (i can remember doing this to check the weather lol)

I can only alt+tab when i am ingame. If im in the editor and i want to alt+tab i get my windows mousecursor but i still see the game instead of my desktop (I think i cant operate the window i alt+tabbed to though, i just cant see it). So i usually preview and then alt+tab, then alt+tab back and stop previewing. Its a bit annoying when editing though. :/

If a accidentally alt+tab in the editor i just keep alt+tabbing until im back. (If you have multiple windows open you need to press tab multiple times before releasing alt again, i just keep trying until it works :p )

EDIT: Im in XP.

I had the exact same problem nemesis. Run it in windowed mode. I used to do that aswell, ie go in game and alt tab. Running in WM is much much easier.

to run the game in windows mode simply right click on your shortcut, then hit properties.

You should then see a start up command line

Then add -window. Should look something like this;

"C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" -window

I tried alt/tab/ last night, screen froze. Tried again after a forced reboot? Same thing. Pizzed me right off. `nother forced reboot. hope they fix this.

I have win7 64-bit no problem alt-tabing at all...however while holding ALT to look around my plane then hitting TAB to get a target causes inadvertent ALT-TABing :)

Odd,

I found that keeping the task manager open in the background while playing ArmA2 helps me alt tab with more success. ;)

(win xp 32)

driver 190.38

often when I hit alt+tab the game window stays open, but mouse control goes onto the desktop. Essentially, the ArmA II screen stays open, but the cursor is controlling the desktop. When this happens it is often impossible for me to close the game without restarting my PC.

happens to me just click on the taskbar till u find arma2 so the game has focus again then keep trying

---------- Post added at 04:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:52 PM ----------

I have win7 64-bit no problem alt-tabing at all...however while holding ALT to look around my plane then hitting TAB to get a target causes inadvertent ALT-TABing :)

set freelook to windows key

Also have the "crash" when alt tabbing from the editor. I can usually get it back by blindly cycling through about 9 times, but it's incredibly frustrating, especially since it was never an issue in ArmA 1. Will look into some of the suggestions here.

Try CTRL/ESC, works for me every time.

Seems like every game I play someone has an issue with ALT/Tab. I have used CTRL/ESC to minimize games for years and it has worked flawlessly in nearly every game I have played.

When Im playing ArmA, I often need to minimize to check x-fires, teamspeak, youtube etc...

To minimze, I use Alt+Tab, and half of the time this works fine with no problems.

However, often when I hit alt+tab the game window stays open, but mouse control goes onto the desktop. Essentially, the ArmA II screen stays open, but the cursor is controlling the desktop. When this happens it is often impossible for me to close the game without restarting my PC.

I get similar issues with other minimizing controls, such as Cntrl+Alt+Delete.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how I might fix this, or another way in which I might minimize the game without shutting it down?

Thanks,

Leving.

I can alt-tab, effectively, given I'm not in the editor and I'm not zooming.

In either of those situations, I can't get alt-tab to work properly.

A consequence of alt-tab and Arma's behavior, is that when you alt-tab back to the game, the game re-loads all the textures.

This often can cause crashes while saving... I suspect due to bad memory handling by Arma.