Fallout 4 Game stuck in taskbar

[JDR13]

Recently reinstalled FO4, and it worked fine at first, but now when I start it the game is minimized to the task bar and remains stuck there. I've tried Alt+Tab, Alt-Enter, etc. Also tired changing the resolution in the launcher and starting it every way possible- fullscreen, windowed, borderless window... same result no matter what. Anyone else here ever experience this?

 

[Couchpotato]

Happened to me before. Are you using any mods as they are usually the culprit.

Sometimes it could be a software or hardware issue as well. It a pain in the ass to get the game stable. I'm currently using Sim settlemts two and it causes to many CTDs.

One other problem is the Creation club content causes problems as well.

 

[JDR13]

Nope, no mods

 

[Couchpotato]

Are you using multiple monitors? As that was a problem in the past as well. There are a bunch of Steam and Reddit posts about your problem, and they offer various fixes.

 

[JDR13]

I had a tv connected as well, but I already disconnected that and the problem persists.

 

[Drithius]

Have you gone through your task manager and manually closed any Fallout/Creation Club processes?

 

[JDR13]

Have you gone through your task manager and manually closed any Fallout/Creation Club processes?

What would that do other than exiting out of the game?

 

[Drithius]

You said it worked fine at first, so perhaps there's a process still running from your first run that is impeding subsequent starts.

 

[JDR13]

Oh, I meant it ran fine before, but I didn't just reinstall it today. I was playing it a few days ago. My system has been rebooted multiple times since then.

 

[Drithius]

Are you running it in Borderless Windowed Mode? You can always delete your \documents\user\fallout4\ *ini files as well.

 

[JDR13]

I tried all 3 display modes.

I also just tried deleting the ini files like you suggested, but no luck.

 

[Pladio]

Sorry, not played this, but have you tried to Verify integrity on Steam ?

 

[Drithius]

Could be that FO4's creation club junk is interfering in some way. You could try this mod or the ini edit suggested therein if so.

 

[JDR13]

Sorry, not played this, but have you tried to Verify integrity on Steam ?

I did.

Could be that FO4's creation club junk is interfering in some way. You could try this mod or the ini edit suggested therein if so.

I don't have anything installed from the Creation Club though.

I was able to get into the game by switching Steam to Big Picture mode and then starting FO4. It still starts minimized, but hitting Alt+Tab a couple of times finally expanded the tab and got me into the game. No idea if that will work consistently though.

It's ridiculous that a game from 2015 could have issues like this. I hope the upcoming next-gen update makes it run better. I'm also having an issue with the mouse feeling sluggish. Tried all the suggestions I've seen (toggling vsync, etc) but nothing seems to fix that either.

 

[Drithius]

I don't have anything installed from the Creation Club though.

Wouldn't matter. If it's seemingly a Steam issue, try disabling overlay if you haven't already.

I'm also having an issue with the mouse feeling sluggish. Tried all the suggestions I've seen (toggling vsync, etc) but nothing seems to fix that either.

That sounds like standard Bethesda console mouse acceleration.

 

[JDR13]

I found that I can get around the minimized issue every time now by right-clicking FO4 in the task manager and selecting Expand and then Bring to Front.

Now it's stuck running at 40fps for some reason. From a technical standpoint, this game is an utter piece of shit.

 

[Couchpotato]

I whole heartily agree as I also have to many startup and CTDs while playing. So hopefully the HD remaster if it's ever released will use Creation Engine 2 instead.

 

[Drithius]

Ironically, FNV is more advanced and runs better than FO4 these days thanks to modders such as lStewie and WallSoGB. FO4 certainly has plenty of bouncing boob mods though.

 

[Couchpotato]

True NV had a couple mods that stabilize crashes and I've yet to find any such mods for Fallout 4. Yet like you said a ton of texture mods though espically nude ones.

 

[JDR13]

I highly doubt Bethesda will go as far as upgrading it to the newer engine. If this next-gen update ever comes out, I'll be happy with it just running properly in Windows 11.