Thread: Have the computer run other tasks while playing LOTRO

I've discovered, to a slight annoyance, after starting to play this game that doing other things on the computer while playing is rather complicated. The issue itself is rather simple in it's essence: I want to be able to 'minimize' the game window, just like you can do with for instance your internet browser. Other games I've played the so called "windows-key" on my keyboard has done that job, but as I soon discovered, that key has no effect whatsoever in LOTRO, and now i'm stuck with having to press ctrl+alt+del in order to reply to someone on skype or FB for instance.
So my question: is there a simpler way of doing this rather than having to go about the whole ctrl+alt+del business or exiting the game completeley?
Thank you in advance!

Alt+Tab or Alt+Enter should work just fine.

The first minimizes the game, and puts it in the background. The second windows it, probably to whatever resolution window mode is set to.

That feature doesn't work as the game can and will crash on some video cards if alt tabbing from full screen to desktop. Two work arounds.

Have a application active in background to alt tab to when in full screen or just run the game in windowed mode, which is safer in the long run if you don't use 2 monitors. As it is a lottery if any game will crash going from full screen to desktop.

Alt + Enter will change your game from full screen to windows mode. then you can tab between windows. works in reverse order as well. I used to use it when playing LOTRO at work, but that was before MOM update came out now my work computer can't handle the load anymore. Hope this helps

Running in Windowed mode works well for me. You can maximize the window so it's full screen.

Originally Posted by 0Pinger

That feature doesn't work as the game can and will crash on some video cards if alt tabbing from full screen to desktop. Two work arounds.

Have a application active in background to alt tab to when in full screen or just run the game in windowed mode, which is safer in the long run if you don't use 2 monitors. As it is a lottery if any game will crash going from full screen to desktop.

Sorry you have this problem. I have been using alt-tab to switch between the full-screen game and the desktop for 5 years now with no problems. I imagine that works just fine for many others.

Originally Posted by Hrodberht

Sorry you have this problem. I have been using alt-tab to switch between the full-screen game and the desktop for 5 years now with no problems. I imagine that works just fine for many others.

google alt tab crash to desktop, Game updates / Driver updates / Dody chips on batches of video cards, be they Branded or clones. both ATI and Nvida cards do suffer from it

Online PC gaming if you want to throw years about since 1989

I doubt he's saying it like it never happens, and it's just you. Just that it might not even happen, so it's worth trying. I've been able to alt+tab out of almost every game I've played without problems, unless they run on the Unreal Engine, which crashes due to memory IIRC. And that hasn't happened much since I got 10GB of RAM.

Alt-tab will work fine if you set in game and desktop resolution the same.