Grand Theft Auto games were always “victims” of small bugs that players get used to after some time. This is the case for Grand Theft Auto V which is celebrating nine years since its release and it still does have some issues when being launched. In this case, players are still reporting that GTA V is launching in the windowed mode instead of in full screen, even though they did reconfigure the settings in the game. In this article, we will show you the steps on how to make GTA V full screen and go through the process step by step.
To make the GTA V full screen press the ALT+Enter keys at launch. Another solution suggests pressing F11 on the keyboard, and the third one suggests going to in-game GTA V settings, setting the Screen Type on Full Screen, or choosing to stay in Windowed mode but Borderless this time which will set your game in full screen. The recommended resolution for GTA V is 1920 x 1080, which will prevent the blurriness of the screen.
We will look through more solutions for this issue and discuss if there are more permanent solutions to this nine-year-old issue. Moreover, we will provide you with a step-by-step guide that you can use for your GTA V game. If you are interested in this topic, stay with us until the end of the article.
Why Does GTA 5 Start in Windowed Mode?
“Windowed mode every time it launches” bug exists with GTA V game since its release. The issue was never particularly addressed and players needed to find ways how to resolve this bug that can be really annoying. When looking through the reasons why this is still an issue after nine years since the GTA V release, we could not find a clear answer. We can only suggest some micro problems occurring when installing the game from Steam because this is only happening on the Steam GTA V version of the game and on PC.
There were no reported issues from other gaming platforms about this particular graphic issue. Moreover, PC players reported graphics being worse each time GTA V is launched from Steam – the graphic resolution lowers and the screen gets blurrier during gameplay. All in all, the issue is still occurring today and players decided to take the means into their hands.
Furthermore, this issue is not occurring just in the base game but in GTA Online which is still one of the most playable online games today.
How To Make GTA V Full Screen?
Because this became an occurring problem, we will provide you with a few solutions that you can try if one does not work for you.
First, we will fire up a few easy solutions to this problem:
- Usually, shortcuts on your desktop don’t want to launch your game properly, so when the game is launched, immediately press the ALT+Enter button combination and you will probably have a full-screen mode immediately. This solution will probably be repeated every time you launch the game because the issue of GTA V windowed mode will stay.
- Another solution requires one to press the F11 button on your keyboard which is usually putting your screen in full-screen mode. Nothing costs to actually try this so definitely go for it.
- There is a possibility your Steam is not working properly so definitely go and launch the game from the original GTA V program file, which is located in the Steam installed games on Local Disk C or another one you designated. Try running the game as the administrator, and you will see what is going to happen.
Now, onto the more “complicated” steps to solve the Windowed mode issue – remember, the same solutions work for GTA Online as well:
- Now, let’s go the in-game route of issue solving. Go to the in-game settings that you can access from the game menu.
- Choose the graphics menu and go to the Screen Type where you will see options available for screen modes.
- Choose Windowed (Borderless) screen type, which will essentially be a full-screen mode, that will not “bug out” after some time.
- You can also adjust the resolution of the game to the one your PC can run, but we recommend the maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080.
Now onto the out-of-game solutions for the windowed mode issue:
- Now you need to go to your original game file located on the local disc, where the game is installed, and press the right-click button on your mouse.
- Go to the “Properties” and click on the “Compatibility Mode” tab and tick the “Run this program in compatibility mode” box and save your settings.
This solution goes together with the fast ones that we provided earlier. We will mention one more solution that worked for one user:
- You need to create a .txt command line and type these commands – “-borderless” “- disallowResizeWindow”
- Save the “.txt” and paste it into the main folder of the game which should be – steam\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V
These are all solutions that worked for the GTA V players over the years. There are probably more solutions available somewhere but these are the ones that are known to us for now. If another solution pops up in the future, we will update you with the newest information.
Hopefully, this bug won’t happen in the GTA VI game that has been heavily announced for months, and the players won’t have to constantly try to find the solution for this silly problem. If you are interested in more of our GTA-themed topics, check out our best police mods for GTA V.
