How to make game screen full screen

FIX: Windows 10/11 games won’t go fullscreen

We all love to relax with a favorite game on our computers, but it seems that some players are having problems with fullscreen games in Windows 10.

This sounds like an unusual problem, and today we’ll try to fix that. Some users report that they are unable to run games in fullscreen mode.

According to them, the game just switches to desktop and stays that way while game sounds play in the background.

This makes most games unplayable since Windows 10 games run in fullscreen mode by default, but there are a few solutions that you can try.

What to do if Windows 10 is not playing games fullscreen?

1. Run your game in windowed mode

If your game comes with a configuration file, or if you can set its configuration before starting it, just make sure that you set it to run in windowed mode.

This isn’t the best solution, but it’s a workaround that will allow you to play your favorite game in just a few seconds.

For the best experience, be sure to select borderless windowed mode and the same resolution that you use on your desktop.

2. Set display scaling to 100%

It has been reported that many games won’t run properly unless the display scaling is set to 100%, so use the above steps to set display scaling to 100% in Windows 10.

You might have to sign out of your account and sign back in order to apply the changes, so be sure to do that. Up next, check if your games are working again.

Even more, there’s a game booster that will get rid of low FPS, freezes, lags, and other issues while playing. If you like the idea of a better gaming experience, don’t hesitate to give it a try as well.

3. Change your main screen

You can experience problems with fullscreen and games if you’re using dual monitor setup. However, you can fix this problem simply by changing your display settings.

In order to do so, right-click on your Desktop and choose Display settings from the menu. When the Display settings window opens, you should see two monitors labeled with numbers.

In the Display settings window, click Identify. A number should appear on your screen. Now in Display settings set the monitor with the same number you got as the main monitor.

Save the changes and try running games in fullscreen. This is a simple trick confirmed by users, so give it a try too.

4. Disable Teamviewer

Many users reported various fullscreen issues with their favorite games, and according to them, the common cause is Teamviewer.

If you’re not familiar with Teamviewer, it’s a remote assistance application that allows you to control any other PC remotely.

This is a rather popular application and many users have it installed. Even though Teamviewer is a great application, sometimes issues do occur.

They all know how to fullscreen a game, that’s for sure. However, this isn’t possible all the time. They were able to solve the problem simply by disabling Teamviewer.

If doing so doesn’t help, you might want to try uninstalling the application and check if that solves the problem instead.

If you need another remote control application that won’t interfere with fullscreen games, try out one with bank-level encryption and an impressive speed. We suggest you try Mikogo, one of the best remote control software that won’t interfere with your running games in full screen mode.

5. Change Nvidia Control Panel settings

If you own both integrated and dedicated graphic you might need to change few Nvidia Control Panel settings to fix this issue.

Certain users reported that they fixed the problem simply by adjusting their desktop size and position in Nvidia Control Panel. To do that, follow these steps:

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After making these changes, you should be able to run games in fullscreen without any problems. If you use AMD graphics, you should be able to find similar options in Catalyst Control Center.

Can’t open Nvidia Control Panel on Windows 10? In such a case, rest assured that this detailed guide will help you fix the issue in no time.

6. Use the Compatibility mode

If you’re having problems with fullscreen games on your PC, you might want to try running them in Compatibility mode.

This mode is specially designed for older applications that aren’t fully compatible with Windows 10. To run a certain application in Compatibility mode, you need to complete the above procedure.

After enabling Compatibility mode, try to run your game again. Note that you might have to try several different compatibility modes before you find the one that works for the selected game.

Compatibility mode is a useful feature that allows you to run old software on your PC, so feel free to try it out.

7. Set the Fit setting to Fullscreen.

If you’re having problems with fullscreen in your favorite games, you might be able to fix this issue simply by setting the font size to 100%.

We already showed you how to do that in Solution 2, so be sure to check it out for detailed instructions.

After doing that, you need to open Intel HD Control Panel application and make a few changes. When Intel HD Control Panel opens, navigate to the Display section and set the Fit setting to Fullscreen.

Now check the Override application settings checkbox and save changes. After doing that, you should be able to run older games without any problems on your PC.

Keep in mind that this solution works only if you’re using Intel HD integrated graphics.

If you’re using AMD or Nvidia graphics, be sure to check their Control Panel software to change the aforementioned settings.

8. Restore your Taskbar to the default position

According to users, problems with fullscreen games can occur if your Taskbar isn’t in the default position.

Some users like to move their Taskbar to the side or to the top of their screen, but that can sometimes cause this problem to occur.

However, you can easily fix this issue simply by moving your Taskbar to its default position on the bottom.

Once you move your Taskbar to the bottom of the screen, the issue should be resolved and you’ll be able to play your favorite games in fullscreen once again.

If you don’t want to move your Taskbar to the default position, you can fix the problem by setting the Taskbar to hide automatically.

After you enable this option, you should be able to run games in fullscreen mode without any problems.

If Taskbar is not working, do not hesitate to take a look at our quick guide to find out how to solve the issue with ease.

9. Change your resolution in the Catalyst Control Center

According to users, you might be able to fix this problem simply by changing your resolution in the Catalyst Control Center.

After doing that, you just need to change the resolution on your PC and set it to the desired value. Now your problem should be resolved and you’ll be able to enjoy games in fullscreen mode once again.

If the issue persists, do not hesitate to repeat the entire procedure after minimizing the game.

As you can see, solving full-screen issues on Windows 10 is relatively simple, and we hope that you managed to solve this problem using one of our solutions.

You may often experience issues while trying to run certain games in fullscreen mode. Do keep in mind that the above solutions cover all these problems:

Let us know if you managed to fix all your fullscreen game issues in Windows 10. Make sure to use the comments area in that regard.

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Making Your Game Fullscreen, Windowed, or Borderless Window

There are many games on the market. Some work on fullscreen mode and some only look great on windowed mode. And, in some cases, some games are designed to work on both modes, and you’re going to need a way to switch between them at runtime.

Setting your game’s default screen mode can be done by going to Edit > Project Settings… > Player > Resolution and Presentation and selecting a screen mode under the Resolution section. Changing screen mode can be done at runtime by setting the value of Screen.fullScreenMode to the desired value.

Depending on what your game does, some modes may be better than others. Keep on reading as I will explain how to do this in detail.

Switching Between Fullscreen, Windowed, and Borderless Window

To change screen mode, go to Edit > Project Settings… > Player

And look under the Resolution and Presentation section.

Pick the screen mode you want and you’re good to go!

Note: Not all screen modes are available for all platforms. HTML5, for example, doesn’t support fullscreen mode as it is rendered via a Canvas element so entering fullscreen mode needs to be done differently through the use of JavaScript.

There are 4 screen modes you can use in Unity: Exclusive Fullscreen, Fullscreen Window, Maximized Window, and Windowed.

You can also do this programmatically to switch between screen modes at runtime by setting Screen.fullScreenMode to a certain value which I will show you below.

Exclusive Fullscreen

Exclusive Fullscreen screen mode makes your game enter the true fullscreen mode. Your game will be rendered on top of everything on the target display, claiming exclusive use of that display.

What does this mean?

This means when the game enters Exclusive Fullscreen mode, the platform stops rendering everything else on the screen except your game.

This mode helps increase performance as more resources are allocated to running your game, but you will experience a delay and a short screen freeze when you switch back and forth between your game and other applications.

Additionally, running in the background is also not allowed while your game is running in Exclusive Fullscreen mode.

Switching to Exclusive Fullscreen mode programmatically at runtime can easily be done by setting the fullscreen mode value to FullScreenMode.ExclusiveFullScreen.

Important: Doing this will make your game enter Exclusive Fullscreen mode while keeping the same resolution as when your game is in Windowed mode.

This means, for example, if your game is running in Windowed mode with a window size of 1280×720 pixels, your display will adjust its current resolution to match that of the game’s when it enters the fullscreen mode.

If you want to adjust the resolution before entering the fullscreen mode, use Screen.SetResolution to enter fullscreen instead:

The example above will make your game enter Exclusive Fullscreen mode with a screen resolution of 1920×1080, a.k.a. 1080p.

If you want to enter Exclusive Fullscreen mode in the native resolution of your screen, use Screen.currentResolution to get the current width and height:

Windowed

The Windowed screen mode makes your game run in a standard window, with a title bar, a minimize button, a maximize button, and a close button.

Various options can be selected to make the game window resizable, among other things. Pick ones that suit your needs.

Do note that unchecking any of the supported aspect ratios will not prevent users from resizing your game to the unchecked aspect ratios when in Windowed mode.

To switch to the Windowed mode programmatically at runtime, simply set the fullscreen mode value to FullScreenMode.Windowed.

Important: Doing this will make your game enter Windowed mode while keeping the same resolution as when your game is in a fullscreen mode.

This means, for example, if your game is running in Exclusive Fullscreen mode with a screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, switching from the fullscreen mode to Windowed mode will not change the resolution. The game window will be kept at 1920×1080 pixels.

If you want to adjust the resolution before entering the Windowed mode, use Screen.SetResolution to switch to Windowed mode instead:

The example above will make your game enter Windowed mode with a screen resolution of 1280×720 pixels, a.k.a. 720p.

Fullscreen Window

The Fullscreen Window mode, or more widely known as the Borderless Window mode, is a mix between Windowed mode and Exclusive Fullscreen mode.

Fullscreen Window mode makes your game cover the entire display, just like the Exclusive Fullscreen mode, but instead of claiming the exclusive use of the target display, it merely renders the game in a fashion similar to a maximized window but without the title bar and the close buttons (hence, Borderless Window) while keeping everything else rendered behind it.

Although this screen mode comes with a decreased performance because it has to keep everything else rendered while the game is running, Fullscreen Window is popular among people who like to switch back and forth between applications a lot since there is no delay to Alt+Tab between apps.

Also, this mode allows your game to keep running in the background even when the game isn’t focused, just like the Windowed mode.

But similarly to the Exclusive Fullscreen mode, your game will keep the same resolution as before it enters Fullscreen Window mode.

So if your game runs at 1280×720 resolution as it enters the Fullscreen Window mode, it will keep that resolution.

But it won’t force the display to change the screen resolution, it will simply stretch your game window to fill the entire screen.

Entering Fullscreen Window mode programmatically can simply be done by setting the fullscreen mode value to FullScreenMode.Windowed.

If you want to adjust the resolution before entering the Fullscreen Window mode, use Screen.SetResolution to switch mode instead:

Maximized Window

This mode is basically the Windowed mode but maximized, with the title bar and all.

…Or that’s how it’s supposed to be.

There’s currently an issue with the Maximized Window mode that prevents it from behaving the way it’s intended and makes it fall back to Fullscreen Window mode.

The problem still exists even in Unity 2021 due to a particular problem.

I suggest don’t design your game around this screen mode for now.

Visit the Issue Tracker of this issue for more details.

Attribution

Window icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

Hi, I’m Pavee. I’m a software developer, an aspiring pixel artist, and the owner of Game Dev Planet. I love learning new things and have a passion for game development.

How to Use Any Game in Full Screen on Windows

Our Windows computer can be used for both professional and domestic tasks, so it is common for us to install a large number of applications and games on it. Sometimes we can find that some of them cannot be executed in full screen for whatever reason. When we talk about games, sure that using the full screen is a priority, since if we play in windowed mode it is less immersive and we do not take advantage of the full space of our monitor.

We can also find universal Windows programs that have been developed to be displayed in windowed mode, without the possibility of extending it to full screen. If we want to play our favorite games in full screen and we do not know how to do it, we are going to check different ways to see their content in full screen.

Open universal apps in full screen mode

With keyboard shortcut

Since the time immemorial of Windows, it has always been possible to launch some applications in full screen by pressing the f11 key. This option has already disappeared for some years, although there is a new option to do so.

Now, through the Windows 10 Creators Update tool it is possible to open in full screen mode any type of universal applications such as the Edge browser or the Microsoft Store. For this, it will only be necessary to launch any application and make sure that its entire window is maximized. Now using a simple keyboard shortcut formed by the Windows + Shift + Enter keys will help us to show the application in full screen.

At the moment that we no longer want to show the application in full screen, we can return it to normal mode. This is something as simple as hovering the mouse along the upper edge of the screen, where a bar will appear with an icon represented by two diagonal arrows pointing to the other. This bar has the option to exit full screen mode just by clicking on it. If we minimize it, the moment we maximize the application again, it will run in full screen mode again.

Run games in full screen

Using a keyboard shortcut

Look in the games settings menu

Within games, especially those more modern, they usually incorporate their own area to manage their settings in the menu. In this section, it is likely that we will find the option to launch the game in Full Screen (Full Screeen). To do this, we must start the game and navigate to the video configuration section and verify that there is a display mode in the form of a drop-down. Here we must select the full screen mode. Once we are playing in full screen we can exit it, it is possible to press the Esc key to exit this mode or we will have to return to the configuration menu to choose another display method.

Set the Windows 10 screen scale to 100%

Now we select the “System” tab and then click on “Screen”. Next, we scroll down and look for the “Scale and distribution” option, where we will find the “Change the size of text, applications and other elements” function. We will click on the drop-down menu and we will change it to 100%.

Run the game in Compatibility Mode

There are situations in which the game may not be compatible with Windows 10 full screen mode. To do this, we can try to run the games in compatibility mode to try to solve the problem.

To do this, we right-click on the game’s shortcut and select “Properties”. Now we must click on the “Compatibility” tab and visualize the “Compatibility mode” section. Here we must select the box “Run this program in compatibility mode for” and select a previous version of Windows that will appear in the drop-down menu. Finally, click on “Apply” and “OK” to save the changes.

Enter a command in the shortcut

How to make game screen full screen

Old Alt+Enter works!

Even more, sometimes the game dumbs up and won’t recognize function key input, switching between screen modes fixes that for me.

For mac users, I just found this message in the Indiana Jones forum

«Jayce85 26 de Jun a las 9:46

It also works for the options menu.

Exit full screen mode by using ALT + ENTER and then use F1 or F5 to save your game.

Turning off Num Lock should allow you to use the F1/F5 keys, as well as others such as the period key (for skipping text). No idea why this happens.

This fixed it for me (Win8 x64, AMD).

I didn’t see the answer to this issue on this thread, so I figured I’d add it.

My issue was that when I went to fullscreen, the picture wasn’t scaling correctly and I would be missing some of the picture.

Here are the steps to fix this:
1. Navigate to file location of dig.exe
2. Right click on dig.exe and select «Properties»
3. Select the «Compatability» tab
4. Check «Disable display scaling on high DPI settings»
5. Apply changes.

Hope this helps someone.

«installscript»
<
«Registry If Not Present»
<
«HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\LucasArts\\The Dig»
<
«dword»
<
«FixAspctRatio» «1»
«SmoothGraphics» «1»
«SwitchResolutions» «0»
«WindowFullScreen» «0»
>
>
>
>

You can’t modify options directly from this file, but thanks to it, you notice the settings can be modified with regedit.

So, just go to the start menu, then execute and type : regedit

Once regedit is loaded, search for : The Dig

You will see several lignes. 0 mean disabled, 1 mean activated.

So if you want to enable fullscreen when the game boot, select the «windowfullscreen» line, hit Enter and change the 0 value with 1.

Then, the game will load directly in fullscreen.

You can also disable the smooth graphics by default, change the resolution, etc.

If you want to change the resolution value, you have to click on Decimal before entering the value, as default values (0 and 1 from other settings) are hexadecimal ones.

Note that the same things work with the other LucasArts games on Steam.

How to make a game full screen on my external monitor?

I have a MacBook Pro 15″, that I have connected another screen to.

It;s running perfect with all programs, except when I want to game, because every time I try to open a game (eg HoN/WoW) it opens on my MacBook’s built in monitor.

So I switch the game to windowed-mode and drag it over to my other screen, but when I then try to make it full screen, it returns to the built in monitor again.

What can I do to make games play in full screen on my external monitor?

6 Answers 6

Now this is only with fullscreen apps but I think it might be the same problem. Reading a bit futher in the comments i found this :

Just go into System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement and move the white menu bar strip to the external monitor’s rectangle. Full screen apps seem to associated only with whatever is considered the primary display.

Ps: Don’t have osx so I wouldn’t know if this works.

I’m running OS 10.9.3 using a MacBook Pro 17″ with retina display connected to a 27″ Studio (Thunderbolt) Display. I mirrored the displays, then selected optimize for Thunderbolt Display. When I want to use both screens, I just deselect Mirror Displays, and it switches right over. It’s the only decent way I’ve found to play games or watch movies/TV on my Studio Monitor, but it works fine!

You might be able to do it using F7 or FN+F7:

I believe that the standard F7 key is to change display modes when hooked up to an external monitor or projector.

It should look like this with a helpful ambiguous icon:

There are at least 3 Ways:

Via Mission Control. Launch the game, swipe up the trackpad with 3 fingers (or press F3/Fn+F3, then drag the game window into the second monitor/desktop.

Via Dock. Move your mouse to the second screen and to where your Dock is positioned to activate it on that monitor. If the game is on the Dock or in the Applications Folder, launch it from there.

Via Finder on the Second Monitor. Open a new window in the second monitor, then Open the Applications Folder or where the Game is located (if it’s other than the Applications folder), then launch the game from there.