using ALT+TAB to switch screens may cause the game to freeze

Bug Reports
1

  • Game Version:20250822.6919.w

  • Platform: Windows PC Steam

  • Mods: never used

  • Hardware Specifications & Operating System (OS version, CPU, GPU, RAM, storage…):win11（26100.4652）,13700k,7900xtx（Driver version：25.8.1）,RAM：32g, 2T

  • Issue Date:20250823

  • Error Message (optional):using ALT+TAB to switch screens may cause the game to freeze，But it’s not 100% triggered，After triggering, the game interface will freeze and become unresponsive, but the game background music will still play normally。

  • Details (Providing reproduction steps helps us):On any interface of the game，using ALT+TAB to switch screens

2 Likes
2

I came here to report the same issue. This happens to me as well, and it doesn’t matter if I have it set to borderless windowed or full screen mode.

Sometimes I can get the game going again by opening the Task Manager in Windows. I’ve had the game become responsive again the last few times I’ve tried this.

I hope there will be a fix soon! I really need to Alt + Tab for a lot of things.

2 Likes
3

Same here. It used to work fine, and I could reliably “sleep” the computer with the game running (essential to deal with RL work/issues), but now most of the time the game hangs and crashes to desktop after either putting PC in sleep mode or alt-tabbing out for other purposes.

1 Like
4

I am not sure if it is related but there seems to be an alt + tab bug in other games as well.

It may perhaps be a windows issue.

3 Likes
5

Thanks for that link!

In the highest rated posts, people mentioned using Alt+Tab or clicking the game’s icon in the taskbar to get the game to respond.

I’m not sure if they mean their game doesn’t freeze up if they use Atl+Tab (or the game icon in the taskbar) to return to the game after they originally used Atl+Tab to minimize the game, or if that’s how they got the game to respond after the freeze. What I mean is does pressing Atl+Tab to get back into the game prevent the game from freezing up at all.

Sometimes my game doesn’t freeze when I use Atl+Tab. When it freezes, neither of those methods work for me to get the game to respond again. (Only opening the Task Manager on Windows works for me.)

I will update my graphics driver right now, and then play for a few days using Atl+Tab to return to the game whenever I minimize it. I’ll share the results after a good test of the method(s).

3 Likes
6

This is a good idea, I will try this too. I cannot usually get the game to respond once it has frozen - or maybe it does not freeze, I just can’t activate the game window no matter what I do.

2 Likes
7

From some of the threads I’ve seen in reddit, and personal experiences with friends who work in IT, there seems to be lots of issues with some of the latest windows versions, specially 24H2.

In another game I play, they also had freezing issues.

Link: Victoria 3 freezes my pc completely | Paradox Interactive Forums

There may be new updates in windows in a canary build, but it may also introduce other instabilities so best to wait.

Still useful for InZoi team to know, perhaps they can inquire with Microsoft if there are specific causes for such issues.

3 Likes
8

@SmallArchangel

I tested a lot for a few days after updating my graphics driver, and it seemed like clicking the icon to get back into the game worked to avoid causing the game to freeze.

However, just now, I tested what would happen if I did ALT+TAB and click on the game’s icon several times in a row, which caused the game to freeze up after 3 or 4 tries.

So, I think it’ll work if you don’t need to minimize the game frequently in a short period of time. I don’t think this applies to CAZ, since I’ve been able to use ALT+TAB multiple times while adding the description to an upload, copying HTML colour codes, etc.

It’s clear from the information @sudo shared that it’s a Windows problem and not an inZOI problem (that’s been the case for me a couple times already).

I hope we can all reduce the freezes with this method while waiting for a Windows update to fix it (and other issues the last update caused).

2 Likes
9

I only generally alt-tab once, and that is enough to prevent me from being able to get back into the game. I think it is a Windows update issue, as it is more a case of just being unable to interact with the game window rather than the game itself freezing.

However, the game will also sometimes hang and close itself (with appropriate error message) if left inactive for a minute or two, which has also only started since Windows update. This is regardless of whether the game is in windowed or full screen mode. That may be a Windows issue too, something to do with the way the OS deals with apps, ie: it keeps thinking InZoi is inactive or frozen when it is not?

Edit: I will update graphics drivers and test after that, too. Can’t imagine this would make much difference however.

1 Like
10

Yeah, it’s definitely Windows. I’ve only had the game shut itself down when I left it minimized for too long. When I’m playing it, I can leave it paused or on the game menu for very long without it ever shutting down.

I hope updating your graphics driver will make some improvement.

When I use ALT+TAB to minimize the game and then click on the game window to get back into playing, it freezes sometimes. I have been able to get it to respond again by pressing CTRL+ATL+DEL and opening the Task Manager. I don’t need to close the application. I just open the Task Manager, then click on the game window again, and it responds again.

Try that to see if it works for you if other methods ever fail.

11

Thanks, I will try that. Alt-tab does not work to get back in for me.