joe.to forums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsxpkYaI3yU

EDIT: Make sure you have TF2 set to a native resolution or the maximum resolution your display supports, otherwise TF2 will not fill the entire screen.

Go to Steam. Click "My Games", right click TF2, click "Properties" then "Launch Options" and type (without quotes) "-sw -noborder". Then click "OK" and "Close". You should now be able to easily minimize TF2 without freezing your system.

Thanks to bl4nk for mentioning the -noborder option. This makes TF2 fall more in line with other applications - you can now get a live preview of your TF2 window in Vista's Alt-Tab. Feel free to fold this mini-tutorial under into larger threads, as I release it under this CC license.

edit by joe:

-sw -noborder +connect tf4.joe.to -console -novid
-sw = windowed
-noborder = no border
+connect = automatic connect to server on game server
-console = enable dev console
-novid = skip intro video

Note: the "+connect tf4.joe.to" part will make TF2 auto-connect to TF4.joe.to on launch.

Doesn't -sw turn it into windowed mode?

wow.... this works great... *applies it to the rest of my games*

this should be default for steam games i think... sooomuch better.... and i dont really see a downside to it (unless you use alt-tab for combination in game (and it also really helps with the windows key too ))

I play windowed, but the border doesn't bother me. Shame all my screenshots look like shit, but whatever.

Oh yeah, this seems to be working good so far. I didn't do the -sw though because I like running fullscreen and It seems to have improved it anyway.

It looks just like fullscreen if you do use both tags....

The Eternal wrote:wow.... this works great... *applies it to the rest of my games*

this should be default for steam games i think... sooomuch better.... and i dont really see a downside to it (unless you use alt-tab for combination in game (and it also really helps with the windows key too ))

boo... this doesnt work in mods (like dystopia / sourceforts)

kevkingofthesea wrote:It looks just like fullscreen if you do use both tags....

Yeah but it doesn't tab out correctly.. I can't go to my desktop and open firefox, it's weird. probably because I ran it at 1280x1024, same size as my desktop.

my fps went way down -_-

Works really awesomely for me. Thanks for posting this!

Updated the tutorial for people with resolution issues.

Hmm, dont need this. Just Alt-Tab and all works well, never had any issues.

Thanks though

Thanks guys, I was having trouble with the game freezing when the map was loading if I tried to do anything else, this has really helped.

Christy_ wrote:Hmm, dont need this. Just Alt-Tab and all works well, never had any issues.

Yeah, that's right, I removed the thanks. You don't deserve it.

I love you guys for making my life so much easier.