Zwift Window Disappearing When Interacting with other App on Dual Monitor Setup

Bugs and Support
1

Using Zwift on Razer Blade Pro 17 4K 120Hz RTX 2080 Pro Max-Q running Windows 11.
Have a 55" LG 4K 120Hz TV connected via HDMI cable.
In order to have the game work on the TV, I had to set the TV as main monitor and laptop display as secondary display (otherwise the game would only work on the laptop display).

My problem is when I interact with another app, say Apple Music on the laptop display, or interact with windows settings in order to pair music with my Bluetooth headset, the Zwift game window completely disappears off the TV. Game still works and I can resume the display if I click the Zwift icon on the taskbar.

Is there any way to prevent the game window disappearing when Iinteract with other apps?

2

It’s because Zwift is running fullscreen. You can workaround this by running it windowed and then also run a program called borderlessgaming to fullscreen it. Then you can interact with other programs. Though it can have issues with frame rate caps and not always going on the screen you want it to.

3

I can give it a trey. How do I exit/re-enter full-screen mode? Is that with Caps-Lock key?

I’m guessing though, then the game won’t be able to run 4K 120 Hz, which kind of defeats the purpose of my investment in this setup.

4

Fullscreen/Windowed is in the Zwift settings menu. I too used to run it full-screen-windowed-with-borderlessgaming mode but got a better monitor and would get capped at 60Hz because of my other monitors, so now I’m fullscreen and have to put up with the same issue you posted about.

5

I found this article, next time I Zwift, I’ll try some of these suggestions: How To Stop Game From Minimizing When Using A Second Screen

1 Like
6

Hi Guy,
I’m really interested in the outcomes you will observe, because this issue exists since the begining of Zwift.
And it’s really annoying having Zwift iconifying each time you want to interact with your second monitor/tv.

My setup is 2x42" TV connected to PC, one for Zwift in fullscreen and the other is for videos also in fullscreen (Netflix/Prime/Youtube).

7

I just “learned to live with it”.
I find that a bad user experience but I don’t see a solution.
So if I need to interact with iTunes to change the music I’m listening too I have to make do with Zwift disappearing until I can click it’s icon again in the taskbar to make it appear again.

8

why don’t you use borderless gaming app and windowed mode. Many full screen games has this issue.

9

Here is my dilemma…

I run Zwift on a laptop running Windows 10 Pro in dual-monitor mode. On one monitor, I run Zwift in full-screen mode. On the other monitor, I run OBS Studio – which I use to stream my Zwift session to Twitch. The problem is that whenever I click on the other screen (i.e., the screen where Zwift is not running), the Zwift application is minimized!? This does not happen when I run Zwift in Windowed mode. Although one might conclude that running Zwift in Windowed mode is the solution, it is not. I would prefer running Zwift in full-screen mode.

I have not been able to reproduce this behavior using any other application. For example, Rouvy runs in full-screen mode by default. However, I can still click anywhere on the other screen without causing it to minimize. I’m just wondering whether there’s anything I can do to modify Zwift’s propensity to disappear when it loses focus in a dual-monitor environment.

I’ll take a look at some of the suggestions I’ve seen here, and get back with an update.

10

Okay. I installed the borderless gaming application, and it appears to be working satisfactorily. I’ll continue to monitor it for the next week or so. However, I’m not anticipating any problems, because I don’t have any cutting-edge hardware whose performance might be affected.