Skip to content
TroubleGrid

Game Crashes When You Alt-Tab on Windows 11

Last verified August 2026Tested against Windows 11, Windows 10Well documented

Switching away from a game can force Windows to reset or hand over the graphics device, and a game that does not rebuild its resources afterwards crashes. Switch the game to borderless windowed first, since that avoids the display handover entirely. Then check the executable's Compatibility tab — if someone ticked "Disable fullscreen optimizations" as a performance tip, that put the game back into true exclusive fullscreen and is likely the reason this started.

Start here

  1. Switch the game to borderless windowed
  2. Check whether Fullscreen Optimizations was disabled

The instinct is to blame the game, and sometimes that is fair. But the underlying event is documented and specific: Direct3D can report that the graphics device was removed or reset, at which point the application has to reinitialise the device and recreate every resource it was holding. Games that handle this correctly survive. Games that do not, crash. Your job is not to fix their code — it is to stop putting the graphics device in a position where it has to be handed over at all.

Symptoms

  • The game crashes to desktop, freezes, or shows a black screen the moment you alt-tab
  • Coming back from the switch leaves the game running but not drawing
  • It happens reliably in fullscreen and never in windowed mode
  • It is worse on a laptop than on a desktop
  • It started after you changed a compatibility or graphics setting rather than after a game update

Why this happens

The game is in true exclusive fullscreen

In exclusive fullscreen the game owns the display output, so switching away forces a handover. Older engines are especially fragile here — Microsoft's own documentation notes that in DirectX 9 a full-screen application that loses focus has its device become lost outright, after which drawing silently fails.

Switch the game to borderless windowed

Fullscreen Optimizations has been switched off

Windows normally intercepts an exclusive-fullscreen request and quietly runs the game borderless instead, which is exactly why alt-tab is fast and overlays work. Turning that off — widely recommended as a performance tweak — restores real exclusive fullscreen and with it the handover that crashes the game.

Check whether Fullscreen Optimizations was disabled

The laptop is switching between its two graphics adapters

Microsoft lists a system changing from a power-saving adapter to a performance adapter as a cause of a device removed condition. On a hybrid laptop, alt-tabbing can trigger exactly that switch, and the game has to rebuild everything or die.

Pin the game to one graphics adapter

The game moved to a monitor on a different graphics device

Microsoft calls this out directly: an app moving to a monitor attached to a different graphics device is a reason a window resize returns a device removed error. Multi-monitor setups that mix outputs from an integrated and a discrete GPU hit this.

Pin the game to one graphics adapter

The driver itself is hanging

A device hang means the driver stopped responding to the commands it was given. If the crash comes with a display driver recovery message, this is a driver-level failure rather than a display-mode one.

Update or cleanly reinstall the graphics driver

Fixes

1.Switch the game to borderless windowed

about 3 min

Removes the cause rather than working around it. A borderless window never takes exclusive control, so alt-tab involves no handover to survive. Microsoft notes the compositor still gives a borderless fullscreen game control of the display and nearly all GPU power, so the cost is small.

Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 11

  1. Open the game's display or video settings.
  2. Change Display Mode from Fullscreen or Exclusive Fullscreen to Borderless or Windowed Fullscreen.
  3. Apply, then alt-tab deliberately a few times to test.
  4. If the game offers only Fullscreen and Windowed, pick Windowed and size it to the screen.

Confirmed by the vendor.

Source: Microsoft

2.Check whether Fullscreen Optimizations was disabled

about 5 min

Worth checking before anything else if the crashes began after following a performance guide. This setting is frequently recommended as a tweak, and switching it off is precisely what returns the game to the exclusive fullscreen that causes the problem.

Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 11

  1. Find the game's executable — in Steam, right-click the game and use Manage → Browse local files.
  2. Right-click the .exe and choose Properties.
  3. Open the Compatibility tab.
  4. If Disable fullscreen optimizations is ticked, untick it and click Apply.
  5. Launch the game and test alt-tab again.
  6. Be aware this cuts both ways: Microsoft acknowledges the feature has caused frame pacing and stuttering complaints, particularly with variable refresh rate and screen recording. If turning it back on brings back a stutter you disabled it to fix, use borderless windowed instead and leave this unticked.

Confirmed by the vendor.

Source: Microsoft

3.Pin the game to one graphics adapter

about 10 min

The fix for laptops and mixed multi-monitor setups. Stopping Windows from moving the game between adapters removes a documented cause of device removal.

Applies to: Windows 11, Windows 10

  1. Open Settings → System → Display → Graphics.
  2. Find the game in the list, or use Browse to add its executable.
  3. Choose Options and set it to High performance so it always uses the discrete GPU.
  4. On a multi-monitor setup, check which outputs come from which adapter and keep the game on a display driven by the GPU you just pinned it to.
  5. Restart the game and test.

Confirmed by the vendor.

Source: Microsoft

4.Close overlays and capture tools while testing

about 10 min

Overlays draw into the same swap chain the game is rebuilding after a device change. Ruling them out costs one test run and tells you whether the game or something layered on it is failing.

Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 11

  1. Close Discord, the NVIDIA App overlay, OBS, and any hardware monitor overlay.
  2. Launch the game and alt-tab several times.
  3. If it survives, re-enable them one at a time to find which one is involved.

5.Update or cleanly reinstall the graphics driver

Check before applyingabout 25 min

The right step when the crash is accompanied by a display driver recovery message, which points at a driver hang rather than a display mode change.

Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 11

Before you do this

A clean driver installation resets display settings, colour profiles, and every per-game graphics profile. Note anything you have customised before you start, and expect the screen to flicker or go black during the install.

First:

  • Know your exact GPU model so you install the correct driver
  1. Note whether Windows shows a display driver stopped responding notification when it crashes.
  2. Download the current driver for your exact GPU from the manufacturer.
  3. Install it with the clean installation option.
  4. Restart, reapply any per-game 3D settings the install reset, and test again.

Confirmed by the vendor.

Source: Microsoft

If none of this worked

If the game crashes on its own without you switching away, alt-tab is not the trigger and this is an ordinary stability problem — start with the game's own logs and community. If every game crashes and the desktop misbehaves too, suspect the GPU, its power delivery, or thermals rather than display modes. And if alt-tab merely takes a long time instead of crashing, nothing is broken: that delay is the display mode change, and borderless windowed removes it.

Common questions

Is disabling Fullscreen Optimizations bad advice?
Not universally, but it is handed out far too freely. It exists to give you fast alt-tab and working overlays, and switching it off restores the exclusive fullscreen behaviour that makes alt-tab crashes possible. Microsoft does acknowledge real complaints about frame pacing and recording, so it is a genuine trade — just not a free performance win.
Why do old games crash on alt-tab more than new ones?
Because older DirectX versions behaved differently. In DirectX 9 a fullscreen app that lost focus had its device become lost, and drawing afterwards silently failed. Direct3D 11 removed most of that fragility, so a game built on the older path is inherently more exposed.
Why is this worse on a laptop?
Hybrid laptops have two graphics adapters, and Microsoft lists the switch from a power-saving adapter to a performance one as a cause of the device being removed. Pinning the game to one adapter takes that variable off the table.

Did this fix work?

If a step is wrong, outdated, or did not help, telling us is the fastest way to get it corrected — reports are reviewed before new articles.

Report a problem with this page

Related problems

Sources

  • Handle device removed scenarios in Direct3D 11Official

    Microsoft · Documentation · checked Aug 16, 2026

    • In DirectX 9, when a full-screen Direct3D application loses focus the device becomes lost and any attempts to draw with it silently fail
    • Direct3D 11 uses virtual graphics device interfaces that eliminate most conditions where apps lose control of the device, but adapter availability can still change
    • A system changing from a power-saving graphics adapter to a performance graphics adapter is a documented cause of a device removed condition
    • A graphics driver upgrade, a device that stops responding and is reset, and an adapter being attached or removed all cause device removed errors
    • An application moving to a monitor attached to a different graphics device is a reason a window size change can return a device removed error
    • DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG indicates the graphics driver stopped responding because of an invalid combination of graphics commands sent by the app
    • Applications that receive DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED must reinitialize the Direct3D device and recreate all device-dependent resources
  • Demystifying Fullscreen OptimizationsOfficial

    Microsoft · Documentation · checked Aug 16, 2026

    • Fullscreen Optimizations intercepts games requesting exclusive fullscreen and runs them in a highly optimized borderless windowed format that takes up the entire screen
    • With Fullscreen Optimizations the Desktop Window Manager handles composition rather than the game taking complete control of the display
    • When a borderless fullscreen window is active with nothing else visible, the DWM gives control of the display and almost all CPU and GPU power to the game
    • Faster alt-tabbing and support for overlays such as Game Bar are among the stated benefits of Fullscreen Optimizations
    • Fullscreen Optimizations can be disabled per game from the executable's Properties, on the Compatibility tab, using the Disable fullscreen optimizations checkbox