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So OS first. Windows 10 Pro. Dunno what else you need to really know about for now. Lemme know what else you'd need.
I'm not very knowledgeable with lingo and such. A little pissed while writing this, too. Google is no help so long as I don't know what to search for exactly.

Right.

So I like to play Civilization 5 on Steam, but it tends to occasionally bug on me where it'll refuse to actually respond. It'll get caught in the initial loadup and all, where it won't progress beyond a dark screen, and I won't be able to force the program to close by making the computer realize it's nonresponsive. I also can't use the traditional alt+tab or other measure to bring up the taskbar and click the close X.

Now comes the wonderful bit. "Why not use task manager?" Well you see, the civ window won't minimize. "Show Desktop", and other such ways don't do anything. I can open stuff up by going through the taskbar pinned items, or through the tray, or through start menu. However I cannot bring their windows to the foreground. The game window is always in the foreground, unless I'm in the taskbar and such. (And then only that little strip of the task bar and windows start menu are in the foreground, until I try to do something. Alt+tab through things doesn't work either.) Because of this, I can open Task Manager, but I cannot use Task Manager. Honestly, TM is my fall back. I don't know how else to force a stop here.

I googled something regarding command prompt killtask or something like that, but it requires you to know the name that the system gives to the program, and I won't really have a way to know how what that is. (This occasionally happens with a couple other games as well. I'm not really able to research this stuff when I'm incapable of looking at maximized windows. I suppose a Plan Omega would be to research the names and write them down someplace on a piece of paper to keep them on hand...)

The wonderful way that steam operates, prevents me from using it to close a program. It'll just tell me that a thing is still running and that I have to close that thing before Steam can close....

I can restart the computer, but I don't want to use this as an option, if possible. I log in to a half dozen things in incognito, and it's a pain to have to log back in to everything just because a game or something else is acting up.


So, all in all:

- Program in taskbar won't close using X
- Program is not being registered as nonresponsive by windows (can't close by doing a nonresponsive)
- Program window prevents closing by using task manager (window won't minimize)
- Steam's design prevents closing Steam as a viable option for closing the program
- I can restart the computer, but I don't want to use this as an option, if possible.
- Only other alternative I see right now is to write down the program names so that I can effectively use Taskkill. And then my issue with this is I don't fully know what this can do if done wrong.

I have this problem with some games too. I know how to close it.

What you have done:
1) I know you said you can't use task manager because the program won't minimize, but open it anyways using Ctrl+alt+del
Note: this needs to be done first, at least for me it "unlocks" my computer so that I can do the next steps.
2) press the windows key. this should bring up the start menu and the task bar.

What you need to do after that:
3) on the task bar, click this thingy
4) right click the game, hover over "move to" and click "Desktop 2" This will keep you on desktop 1
5) you are now free to use the task manager you opened in step 1.

I couldn't get Civ to recreate the glitch to test run this, but I was able to find that icon (I actually apparently have it pinned to taskbar, so coolios) and use it to push the game to a new desktop. All without opening a window. There we go.

I'm surprised I got this fast of a response. XD

Thank you, Dark. I'll edit this post (or make a post if somebody replies) if the glitch happens and the method works!

TinyVoices wrote:(I actually apparently have it pinned to taskbar, so coolios)

Windows 10 has it part of the task bar, so it's always there and you can't remove it.

the bug oinly happens if you prate the game because it makes is unstable. have you considered buying the game?

Yttrium wrote:the bug oinly happens if you prate the game because it makes is unstable. have you considered buying the game?

Legit copy.

TinyVoices wrote:I'll edit this post (or make a post if somebody replies) if the glitch happens and the method works!

The method that DarkTheImmortal suggested works, by the way.

Yttrium wrote:the bug oinly happens if you prate the game because it makes is unstable. have you considered buying the game?

I definitely buy all my games from legit sources and it happens to me. It's probably a hardware problem or compatibility issues

Try Control + Shift + Escape instead pf Alt + Delete.

Instead of going to end the task by normal means, right click the task and click "Go to Process". From there you right click and hit "End process tree" instead. This is essentially "killing" the program.

Oh and if you go to the Processes tab and find it, then you will now know the name that the game is given for you to try that prompt killtask thing. Hope that helped a little bit.
I'm running Win7 so somethings will be named slightly different but from my experience with Win10 it's pretty much the same when you get to the task manager thing.

SirSlaughter wrote:Try Control + Shift + Escape instead pf Alt + Delete.

It's not a problem of opening task manager, it's a problem with the game staying on the foreground. Once you go into the ctrl alt del screen, you can bring up the task bar, but clicking on the task manager does nothing because the game stays in the foreground. you HAVE to switch the game to another desktop, and then clicking end process works just fine

DarkTheImmortal wrote:

SirSlaughter wrote:Try Control + Shift + Escape instead pf Alt + Delete.

It's not a problem of opening task manager, it's a problem with the game staying on the foreground. Once you go into the ctrl alt del screen, you can bring up the task bar, but clicking on the task manager does nothing because the game stays in the foreground. you HAVE to switch the game to another desktop, and then clicking end process works just fine

Interesting. So it focuses on the game, even though the task manager appears above it?

I'll assume that the task manager option of "always on top" is checked... Does the task manager title bar appear to be in focus, and if so, do keyboard shortcuts work for getting to the processes tab?