How to Fullscreen a Game (2026 Guide)

Few things break immersion faster than launching a game and finding it stuck in a small window with a taskbar poking out at the bottom. The fix is usually a single keyboard shortcut, but which shortcut works depends on the engine, the launcher and the operating system. This guide covers every reliable method, explains the difference between exclusive fullscreen and borderless windowed, and shows how to fix black bars when a game finally does go fullscreen.

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How to fullscreen a game: the shortcuts that work

On Windows, press Alt + Enter. That combination has been the standard fullscreen toggle for DirectX titles for decades and works in a huge proportion of PC games, emulators and some launchers. On macOS, press Control + Command + F, or click the green traffic-light button in the window’s title bar. For browser-based games, press F11 on Windows and Linux. If none of those work, the game does not expose a hotkey and you need to change the setting inside its own video options menu.

How to fullscreen a game from its own settings menu

The most dependable route is the game’s video or display settings. Look for a Display Mode dropdown offering Fullscreen, Borderless Windowed and Windowed. Set it to Fullscreen and make sure the Resolution field directly beneath it matches your monitor’s native resolution, because a mismatched resolution is the usual cause of a blurry or letterboxed image. Apply the change and confirm within the fifteen-second countdown many games use. Some engines require a restart before the change fully takes effect. If your display is the weak link, our gaming monitor buying guide explains which resolution and refresh-rate combinations are worth paying for.

Exclusive fullscreen versus borderless windowed

Exclusive fullscreen hands the display over to the game, which historically delivered the lowest input latency and was required for features such as variable refresh rate and true HDR on older Windows builds. The trade-off is slow alt-tabbing and flickering when overlays appear. Borderless windowed runs the game as a maximised window with no frame, so switching to Discord or a browser is instant, but the desktop compositor adds a small amount of latency. Modern Windows 11 optimisations have narrowed that gap considerably for DirectX titles. Competitive shooter players still tend to choose exclusive fullscreen; everyone else usually prefers borderless.

Launch options that force fullscreen

When a game boots into a broken window and you cannot reach the menu, launch options solve it. In Steam, right-click the game, choose Properties, and add a parameter to the Launch Options box. Common flags include -fullscreen, -windowed, -noborder, -w 1920 -h 1080 and -screen-fullscreen 1 for Unity titles. Unreal Engine games often accept -FULLSCREEN or -ResX=2560 -ResY=1440. These override the saved configuration on the next launch, which is often the only way to recover from a resolution set higher than your monitor supports.

Editing config files when nothing else works

Most engines store display settings in a plain text file you can edit. Unity games typically use the Windows registry or a prefs file, Unreal games use GameUserSettings.ini in the AppData folder, and Source games use a config.cfg or video.txt in the game’s cfg directory. Open the file in a text editor, find the fullscreen and resolution entries, set them to sensible values and save. Keep a backup copy first. This approach is invaluable when a game has crashed itself into an unusable state. A comfortable keyboard makes this kind of tinkering less painful, and our mechanical keyboard buying guide covers layouts with dedicated function rows for shortcut-heavy workflows.

Fixing black bars and stretched images after going fullscreen

If your game fills the screen but sits inside black bars, the game is rendering at a different aspect ratio to your display. On Nvidia cards, open the Nvidia Control Panel, go to Adjust Desktop Size and Position, and set Scaling Mode with Perform Scaling On set to GPU. On AMD, the equivalent lives in Adrenalin under Display and GPU Scaling. Choose Full Panel to stretch, Aspect Ratio to preserve proportions, or No Scaling with Integer Scaling for crisp retro pixel art. Older games locked to 4:3 will always letterbox on a 16:9 panel unless you deliberately stretch them, which distorts the image.

Fullscreen for emulators and retro games

Emulators use their own conventions. RetroArch toggles fullscreen with F, Dolphin uses Alt + Enter or a configurable hotkey, PCSX2 and DuckStation both respond to Alt + Enter, and PPSSPP uses F11. Most also offer integer scaling and shader options that matter far more than raw resolution for old consoles, since non-integer scaling produces uneven pixels. Setting up a retro corner is a rabbit hole worth falling into, and our retro USB controller buying guide compares reproduction pads for classic systems.

Fullscreen on Steam Deck, handhelds and TVs

Steam’s Big Picture and the Steam Deck’s gaming mode force titles into fullscreen automatically, so the problem largely disappears there. Where it reappears is on an external display, when a game locks to the handheld’s internal resolution. Set the resolution manually in the game’s settings and enable the Steam per-game setting for external display resolution. On a TV, also check that the set is not applying its own overscan, which crops the edges of the image and hides HUD elements; most TVs call the fix “Just Scan”, “Screen Fit” or “1:1 Pixel Mapping”. Playing on a big screen from the sofa works best with a wireless pad, and our wireless gaming controller buying guide covers latency and battery life. If you plan to record that setup, our capture card buying guide explains passthrough resolutions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Alt + Enter not fullscreen my game?

Alt + Enter is a DirectX convention rather than a Windows-level guarantee, so engines that manage their own window, most notably many Unity and OpenGL titles, simply ignore it. In those cases you need to change the display mode inside the game’s own video settings menu or pass a fullscreen launch parameter.

Is fullscreen or borderless windowed better for performance?

Exclusive fullscreen historically gave slightly lower input latency and more reliable variable refresh rate support, so competitive players still favour it. Borderless windowed makes alt-tabbing instant and plays nicer with overlays. On modern Windows 11 systems the measurable difference for most DirectX games is now very small.

How do I fullscreen a browser game?

Press F11 to put the entire browser into fullscreen on Windows and Linux, or Control + Command + F on macOS. Many browser games also have their own expand icon that requests fullscreen for just the game canvas, which is preferable because it hides the surrounding page furniture too.

How do I get out of fullscreen if the game will not respond?

Press Alt + Enter again, or Alt + Tab to switch away and then use the taskbar. If the display is stuck at an unsupported resolution and shows nothing, press Windows + P and choose a display option, or boot into safe mode and delete the game’s saved configuration file to reset it.