Playing Civ (Windowed)

[agoodfella]

Is there any way to play Civ "Windowed", i.e. have it on my desktop, so that I can do other things (open other apps) or surf the web?

Thanks

[mengo76]

you can alt-tab..... cuz you really want to have civ at the largest you can (ie. fullscreen) because you can see so little in the screen now that theres only 2 zoom options...

and if when you alt-tab your screen goeas all screwy, use the KeepRes=1 option in the .ini file

[star mouse]

I've found that you can press the Windows key to get the Start menu. You can then access everything that's in your Start menu. I've used this to capture screenshots without difficulty. And all the while, CIV3 runs happily in the background.

Its the first time I ever found a use for this key

[AustralianJeremy]

If you have autohide on for the taskbar like I always have (so it pops away unless you move the mouse down to it), you can just move the mouse to the bottom of the Civ3 screen and the taskbar pops up as it would in Word or anything else.

[agoodfella]

thanks for the response guys, a couple of things:

Originally posted by star mouse
I've found that you can press the Windows key to get the Start menu. You can then access everything that's in your Start menu. I've used this to capture screenshots without difficulty. And all the while, CIV3 runs happily in the background.

Its the first time I ever found a use for this key

my laptop doesnt have the windows button

and the autohide, ive used that and it doesnt seem to work once the game gets loaded....

[Nemo]

yes, but you must edit your civilization3.ini file to do so
set "KeepRes=1"
set "Video Mode=1024"
(see the README.txt for info on how to do this)
and make sure your desktop resolution is something above 1024x768 (e.g. 1152x960 or 1280x1024)

[smellymummy]

Originally posted by star mouse
Its the first time I ever found a use for this key

windows key with E = windows explorer
windows key with D = desktop
windows key with F = find/search
windows key with BREAK = System properties

I think that's it.

Just thought i'd post these shortcuts for anyone trying to diagnose problems

[smellymummy]

forgot to add, that if you hit CTRL and ESC it does the same if you don't have the windows key.

ALT and TAB can do it too, but if civ3 is the only process on your laptop it won't be that simple to switch out.

All in all though, the game runs fine while using windows. It sits in the background fine, simply need to know how to switch out

[The Viceroy]

Sorry, double post

[The Viceroy]

If your running Windows NT/2000 or XP you can also use
CTRL-SHFT-ESC to bring the task list up, and run stuff from there .. but you will need to know the exe path.

The same run ability is on the start menu...

[Gramphos]

Set the taskbar to autohide, then it will came up over Civ3 when you move your mouse down.