Quick answer: to minimize a game without closing it, press Alt+Tab (switch to another window), Win+D (show the desktop) or Win+M (minimize everything). If the game freezes, goes black or takes ages to come back, it is running in exclusive fullscreen: in its video settings, switch to borderless window (sometimes called "windowed fullscreen") and the problem disappears, at a small FPS and input-lag cost. And if you want to glance at a browser or Discord without minimizing anything, you can run the game on a virtual monitor and see it in a window on your real screen.
This is the most common question from people new to PC gaming: "how do I get out of the game without closing it?", "how do I minimize the game screen?", "what is the shortcut to minimize a game?". The short answer is "Alt+Tab", but the full answer explains why Alt+Tab sometimes freezes the game, blanks the screen or makes the game vanish and refuse to come back. Let's go step by step, from the shortcut to the setting that fixes it for good.
The shortcuts that minimize a game (and what each one does)
All of these are Windows shortcuts and work in any game. The difference is what happens to the rest of your windows.
| Shortcut | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Alt+Tab | Switches between open apps. Hold Alt and tap Tab repeatedly to pick a window. | The default: you want another program and a quick way back. |
| Win+D | Shows and hides the desktop (every window disappears). Press it again to bring everything back. | You need an icon or file on the desktop. |
| Win+M | Minimizes all windows. Win+Shift+M restores them. | Like Win+D, but without the automatic "undo". |
| Win key alone | Opens the Start menu over the game. In exclusive fullscreen this usually minimizes the game. | Launching another program from Start. |
| Win+Tab | Opens Task View with every window and virtual desktop. | You have lots of windows open and want to see them all. |
| Alt+Enter | In most DirectX games, toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode. | The game has no windowed option in its menu, or it is stuck in fullscreen. |
| Win+G | Opens the Xbox Game Bar over the game (Discord, performance, capture, an Edge browser). | You only want a quick look at something without leaving the game. |
| Ctrl+Alt+Del, then Esc | Forces Windows to take the screen back. Esc returns you to the game (or to the desktop with the game minimized). | Last resort: the game froze and no other shortcut responds. |
One tip that saves a lot of frustration: hold Alt and tap Tab once. Two quick taps jump straight back into the game, which makes it look like "Alt+Tab did nothing".
Why some games freeze, go black or crash when minimized
Minimizing is trivial for a normal window. The problem is that many games do not run as normal windows.
In exclusive fullscreen, the game takes direct control of the monitor: it picks the resolution and refresh rate and draws straight to the screen without going through the Windows compositor. When you press Alt+Tab, Windows has to take that control away from the game, bring the desktop back at its own resolution and, when you return, hand the monitor to the game again. Every switch is a display mode change, and that is what causes:
- A black screen for 1 to 5 seconds on the way out and on the way back (the monitor is changing modes);
- A minimized game that is slow to return or never returns, because the engine tries to recreate its graphics device and fails;
- Freezes or crashes, most common in older games or engines that handle focus loss badly;
- Auto-pause: some games pause on purpose when they lose focus. That is the engine's decision, not Windows', and only the game's own setting ("run in background") changes it.
Microsoft describes exactly this when it explains Windows' "fullscreen optimizations": in exclusive fullscreen the game has complete control of the display, and that is precisely what makes Alt+Tab and overlays slow or problematic. In online games there is a practical extra: staying out of the match too long can flag you as AFK or disconnect you, so "minimized" is not the same as "paused".
The fix that works in most cases: borderless window
In the game's video settings, look for Display mode (or Window mode / Screen type) and choose Borderless window, Windowed fullscreen or Borderless: different names for the same thing. The game still fills the whole screen with no frame, but technically it is an ordinary window. Result: Alt+Tab, Win+D and clicks outside it happen instantly, with no black screen, no display mode change and no vanishing game.
The honest cost: you give up exclusive fullscreen and go through the desktop compositor, which usually means a small FPS and input-lag cost compared with exclusive fullscreen. In our Cyberpunk 2077 measurement the windowed penalty was roughly 10–15 % on our rig; in light games or with a frame cap the difference is close to zero. For casual play it is a great trade. For competitive play, the full comparison is in Borderless vs fullscreen: which is better for FPS?.
Where the option lives in the most-searched games
The names below are the English menu labels; other languages use the equivalent term.
| Game | Path | What to pick |
|---|---|---|
| Valorant | Settings → Video → General → Display Mode | Windowed Fullscreen. Alt+Enter toggles it too. |
| Fortnite | Menu → Settings (gear) → Video → Window Mode | Windowed Fullscreen. |
| EA SPORTS FC (formerly FIFA) | Game Settings → Display → Display Mode | Borderless Fullscreen. |
| GTA V | Settings → Graphics → Screen Type | Windowed Borderless. The -borderless parameter in commandline.txt does the same. |
| Free Fire (BlueStacks, LDPlayer and other emulators) | The game runs inside the emulator, which is a normal window | Leave the emulator's fullscreen with F11 (or Esc). In BlueStacks 5, Ctrl+Shift+X hides the whole emulator at once (the "Boss Key"). |
In any other game the rule is the same: look for the word "window" in the video or graphics options. If the game only offers "Fullscreen", try Alt+Enter: many DirectX games accept the shortcut even without showing the option in the menu.
Windows 11: turn on "Optimizations for windowed games"
Windows 11 has a setting built exactly for people who play in a borderless window. Go to Settings → System → Display → Graphics and, under Default settings, turn on Optimizations for windowed games. According to Microsoft, it improves performance for DirectX 10 and 11 games in windowed and borderless modes by moving them from the legacy presentation model to the flip model, which reduces frame latency. It also enables Auto HDR and variable refresh rate for those games; if Auto HDR is already on, the optimization is switched on with it.
You can toggle it per game: on the same page, under Custom options for apps, pick the game's executable, click Options and tick the box. If one specific game starts flickering or stuttering after you enable it, turn it off for that game only.
The game is stuck minimized and will not come back: what to do
This happens mostly with exclusive-fullscreen games: you minimize, click the taskbar icon and the window flashes and disappears again, or only shows a black screen. Try these in order:
- Hold Alt and tap Tab until the game is selected, instead of clicking the taskbar. Many games only restore their graphics device when they get focus from the keyboard.
- Win+D twice or Win+Shift+M: restores minimized windows in one go.
- Alt+Enter with the game selected: forces the switch to windowed mode, which almost always "unsticks" the screen.
- Win+Ctrl+Shift+B: restarts the graphics driver (the screen flashes and you hear a beep). Fixes a black screen without closing the game.
- Ctrl+Alt+Del → Esc: makes Windows reclaim the display. If the game stays frozen, open Task Manager and use End task; at that point closing it is unavoidable.
- Once you have recovered it, switch to borderless window so it does not happen again.
If the game vanishes and reappears at the wrong resolution, it changed the display mode and did not change it back: check the resolution under Settings → System → Display after closing the game.
Laptops with hybrid graphics: why Alt+Tab stays black longer
On gaming laptops with two GPUs (the processor's integrated one and the dedicated NVIDIA or AMD one), the screen can be driven by either, depending on what is open. With NVIDIA Advanced Optimus, for example, the system hands control of the panel from one GPU to the other automatically; ASUS documents that this switch takes 3 to 5 seconds, with a black, flickering screen in between. If you minimize a heavy game and open a browser, that switch can happen in both directions.
What helps: pin the display mode to NVIDIA GPU only (or "discrete GPU", in the NVIDIA Control Panel under Manage Display Mode, or in the vendor utility such as Armoury Crate or Legion Space) while you game plugged in, keep the graphics driver up to date and, once more, play in a borderless window: with no display mode change, Alt+Tab no longer triggers the GPU switch.
Switching without minimizing: the game on its own virtual monitor
Everything above assumes you have to leave the game to see something else. If what you really want is to look at Discord, a guide or YouTube while you play, there is a route with no Alt+Tab at all: Staged gives the game its own virtual monitor, where it runs in native fullscreen, and shows that monitor in a resizable window on your real screen. You click the browser, type in Discord and go back to the game freely, because the game never loses its display and is never minimized. There are no game hooks and no injection, so no anti-cheat risk, and latency is sub-frame: the stage shows the same frame as the game, measured, with under 0.2 ms processing overhead. Because the game can render at 1080p on a 1440p or 4K panel, we measured up to 2× FPS in GPU-bound scenarios; details on the lab page. The one thing a virtual monitor does not change is a game coded to pause on focus loss; for that you still need the game's own "run in background" option.
Frequently asked questions
What is the shortcut to minimize a game on PC?
Alt+Tab switches to another window (hold Alt and tap Tab to choose), Win+D shows the desktop and Win+M minimizes all windows. The Win key alone opens the Start menu, which in exclusive fullscreen also minimizes the game.
Why does my game freeze or go black when I minimize it?
Because it is in exclusive fullscreen and controls the monitor directly. When you minimize, Windows has to change the display mode and the game has to recreate its graphics device; that switch causes the black screen, the delay and, in some games, the freeze. Switching to borderless window removes the mode change.
How do I minimize a fullscreen game without closing it?
Use Alt+Tab or Win+D. If the game ignores them, press Alt+Enter to drop into windowed mode and minimize normally. To fix it for good, pick borderless window (windowed fullscreen) in the game's video options.
Does borderless window lose FPS?
A little, in most games: the game goes through the desktop compositor instead of exclusive fullscreen, with a small FPS and input-lag cost. In our Cyberpunk 2077 measurement the difference was roughly 10–15 % on our rig. Turning on "Optimizations for windowed games" in Windows 11 lowers latency in DirectX 10 and 11 games.
My game minimized and will not come back. Now what?
Hold Alt and tap Tab until the game is selected, try Win+Shift+M, then Alt+Enter to force windowed mode. If the screen stays black, Win+Ctrl+Shift+B restarts the graphics driver without closing anything. Ctrl+Alt+Del and Task Manager are the last resort.
Can I leave the game without minimizing or closing it?
Yes. Win+G opens the Game Bar over the game to check Discord or performance. And with the game on a virtual monitor in Staged, it sits in a window on your screen while staying in native fullscreen on the virtual monitor, so you use any other app beside it without minimizing and without Alt+Tab.
Sources
- Microsoft Support: Keyboard shortcuts in Windows (Alt+Tab, Win+D, Win+M, Win+Tab, Win+G, Win+Ctrl+Shift+B).
- Microsoft Support: Optimizations for windowed games in Windows 11.
- DirectX Developer Blog: Demystifying Fullscreen Optimizations.
- ASUS: Game Bar feature on Windows 11/10 and NVIDIA Advanced Optimus Introduction (GPU switch with a 3–5 second black screen).
- Staged: measured performance lab.
Play and switch without minimizing
Staged runs your game on a virtual monitor in native fullscreen and shows it in a window on your real screen, so you switch to the browser, Discord or any other app without minimizing, without a black screen and without Alt+Tab. It is coming to Steam; add it to your wishlist and be the first to play.
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