Game doesn't come back when using Alt-Tab

[GKar]

I just lost a long PBEM turn because the game doesn't come back when I tab out and in (playing full-screen mode). I accidentally clicked the Windows key (X$%§&!) and was sent to the desktop, when tabbing in, the music restarted, the mouse pointer was there but the rest of the screen remained dark. Waiting a few minutes didn't help either.

Can anything be done about that? It's quite annoying not to be able to tab in and out of the game, be it deliberate or not. And no, I'm not too fond of the windowed mode either as some of the game window's content seems to be missing then (at the bottom).

[Protagonist]

It used to be ALT-TAB friendly (in WaW) but that was broken with a later patch. What I do in windowed mode is Auto-hide the Taskbar (right click on the Taskbar, select Properties, check Auto-hide, click OK).

Since I use a wide screen laptop to play, I was amazed at how Europe looks in actual non-stretched dimensions. Playing in windowed mode also makes it easy to check email, etc. while playing (ALT-TAB always had a pause anyway). And if you were so inclined to take notes or run calculations on stuff, you can see the screen of the game as well as the other program at the same time.

[MrQuiet]

I would love to use full screen mode but I only use windowed mode because I can access the pdf manual with one click and the game has never crashed on me in windowed mode. It did look a bit small on this monitor but I have gotten use to it and do not even notice anymore.
 
-MrQ

[Joel Billings]

Unfortunately despite several tries at fixing the Alt-Tab, we weren't able to get it to consistently function well. That's why we put on the mouse over text in the preference screen the note to use Windowed Mode if you need to go in and out of the game. We also mentioned it several places in the manual, but I realize that all of this does nothing to relieve the frustration of having a turn lost due to an Alt-Tab. Realistically I don't expect this to be fixed in the future since Keith was unable to figure out what was causing the problems. Windowed Mode is the only known solution for safely going in and out of games in progress.

[Twotribes]

Ya, the warnings are there and clear. I changed to windowed mode because my anti Virus program booted me out once to do an update. Windowed mode on my computer is nearly transparent, All I see is a little bit of blue at the edges and if my computer does something stupid, rather than lose the game I just have to wait for the desktop warning to clear.

[GKar]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I was really angered when it happened, because I was just about to finish my turn after thinking back and forth for some time - and I simply didn't have the time nor felt like doing it all over again. On top of it, I had a bit of luck with a few battles.

Well, these things happen. AWD isn't alone with this problem, other games experience the same thing. Either I will try to get used to windowed mode once again, or my Windows key - cursed be it! - will be deactivated in the registry from now on. I never use it anyway, same for the "right-click" key.