Exclusive full screen vs borderless windowed

[Abiak]

How do you figure out which of the two you are using?
I thought games pressing the window key, with the exclusive full screen, minimize themselves in the taskbar but in a game (Mordhau) this is not happening.

[jorimt]

(I've moved your topic to a more appropriate sub-forum)

Under Windows 10, a fair amount of games now use a hybrid borderless/exclusive mode at default (aka FSO: fullscreen optimizations) when set to exclusive fullscreen, which means exclusive fullscreen acts more like borderless/windowed when alt+tabbing.

In these situations, you'll be able to tell whether you have exclusive fullscreen enabled if the game has both a "Fullscreen" and "Borderless" option (sometimes listed as "Borderless Windowed" or "Windowed Borderless") in a drop-down/selector, and you have it set to "Fullscreen." Though some games don't have a true exclusive fullscreen option, and label it as "Fullscreen" anyway.

You can disable this hybrid borderless/exclusive behavior in most games by going to each game exe, right clicking, selecting "Properties," then "Compatibility" tab, then checking "Disable fullscreen optimizations."

[Abiak]

So if there is just one setting label full screen, the only way to know is to test the "Disable fullscreen optimizations"?

[RealNC]

If you have an nvidia gpu, force vsync to "off" in the nvidia panel. If you get tearing, then you're using fullscreen mode. If not, you're using borderless.

[jorimt]

Also, if you have G-SYNC, and set it to "Enable for full screen mode" only in the Nvidia control panel, you'll be able to tell whether the game's fullscreen mode is exclusive or not, with or without FSO; if the in-game option is labeled "Fullscreen" but the G-SYNC indicator doesn't show in-game, then you know it's really borderless, and visa-versa.

[karavanasam]

I disabled fullscreen optimizations for the least input lag and best image quality.Dont use a windows feature if you ask me.

[RealNC]

I disabled fullscreen optimizations for the least input lag and best image quality.

It doesn't have an effect on them.

[Notty_PT]

On single player games like Tomb raider or Metro Exodus, I use bordereless because I like to use my mouse on my secondary monitor while listening to some stream or youtube etc. On first person shooters I use exclusive fullscreen to get the best mouse input possible. They are both great options depending on what you are playing.

For dual screens setups bordereless is "God Tier" in my opinion.

[Abiak]

I found a borderless window that can minimize in the taskbar

[whitepuzzle]

From the testing I've seen, W10 1809's new hybrid fullscreen mode adds no input lag and has either no effect or a negligible effect on FPS depending on the game. Quite a nifty improvement indeed. You can tell if you're using the hybrid mode by changing your windows volume with a hotkey; if the volume slider shows up in the top left, you're in hybrid mode. If not, you're in exclusive fullscreen mode.

As I understand it, the hybrid mode isn't running the application in true exclusive fullscreen mode, but is still bypassing the DWM to avoid enforced vsync and input lag.

I wouldn't mind seeing some thorough and conclusive testing however, just to cement my confidence in using the mode for competitive FPS.