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Quite a lot of game allow user to play in a "borderless fullscreen window" instead of a "fullscreen mode". I've been wondering. Why would one prefer a fullscreen window over the "built-in" fullscreen mode?

Simple test of my own showed me, that using fullscreen mode instead yields better performance. I also tried to search on Google and on SO, but most answers are gaming related or on how to actually create those windows in API X,Y or Z.

So what is the point of having a borderless fullscreen window? Are there any technical reasons?

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I sometimes had to do that because fullscreen mode would simply not run on my old computer. – Bakuriu 3 mins ago
up vote 9 down vote

"Regular" fullscreen involves taking "exclusive" access of the GPU, which means a lot more work in handling resolution switching, resource management (in older APIs, in particular) and so on, especially around supporting correct alt-tab behavior.

A "borderless fullscreen" window is just a regular window, with window chrome disabled, that is the size of the whole screen. This means it acts just like a regular window and doesn't have the extra complication and overhead, which makes things easier for developers at the cost of some negligible performance. This is the main technical reason: less work.

It also makes things easier on users, usually, because many games that use exclusive fullscreen modes also happen to not handle alt-tab very well, and crash, or act oddly when restored to fullscreen. This can be exceedingly annoying for players who want to alt-tab to look at GameFAQs, chat on Discord or IRC, or whatever.

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A succinct, good answer. I knew about the "exclusive" access, but none of its downsides. – Julien 4 hours ago
1  
Also borderless fullscreen can allow the game to render at a lower resolution but scale the graphics up using the GPU rather than change the screen's resolution. This is useful when a display has issues at some resolutions or simply cannot handle that video resolution at all. I have seen some tablet PCs drivers that can only handle 2 or 3 resolutions other than native, none of which scale properly. Where games did a better job of scaling than the drivers. – Stephane Hockenhull 4 hours ago
4  
Borderless Fullscreen alss plays a /lot/ nicer with multiple monitor setups than normal fullscreen, while letting you use all the pixels on one monitor for a game. – StarWeaver 2 hours ago
    
With Windows 7, and further improvements in Windows 8, the internals have changed so there is no longer as much latency when using borderless windowed. Therefore there isn't any advantage to using real fullscreen any-more. Considering the issues with multi monitor, alt-tab and notifications, it simply isn't worth it. – Programmdude 1 hour ago
    
Does this reason apply to mobile environments too? – Triangles 11 mins ago
up vote 1 down vote

In addition to Josh Petries very thorough answer, I would like to add a more practical upside of borderless fullscreen.

Having a setup with multiple monitors makes regular fullscreen a bit of a pain. Because changing focus to another window takes longer and and causes the fullscreen application to minimize.

With borderless fullscreen on the other hand, the window in question is a regular window. This means, it can be in the background. Still visible while other windows overlap. With multiple monitors, it allows streamers for example to interact with their viewers while still focusing on the game.

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