Antidrot Over Games: Windowed, Borderless and Fullscreen Modes

In windowed mode and in borderless windowed mode, the Antidrot window simply appears on top of the game. If a game is in exclusive fullscreen mode, the program minimizes it once before showing the window — otherwise the window wouldn't be visible. In every mode, the window doesn't take focus or block controls: the game can be paused, saved and exited from a match.

Three display modes in games, in plain words

Almost every PC game has a “Display mode” or “Window mode” option in its graphics settings. There are usually three choices:

• Windowed. The game runs in a normal window with a frame and a title bar, like a browser or Notepad.
• Borderless windowed (also called borderless, windowed fullscreen or fullscreen windowed). The picture fills the screen, but to Windows it's still a window — just one without a frame, the size of the monitor.
• Fullscreen (sometimes “exclusive fullscreen”). The game takes over the monitor and outputs its picture directly, bypassing the normal Windows desktop rendering.

There's also an in-between case. In Windows 10 and 11, many modern games in “fullscreen” mode actually run through fullscreen optimizations, which effectively makes them borderless. You won't see any difference, but for Antidrot such a game is an ordinary window that it can show its own window on top of.

What Antidrot does in each mode

The window itself is the same everywhere: small, no more than a quarter of the screen, exactly in the center. It can't be dragged into a corner, Win+D doesn't hide it (it comes straight back), and Alt+F4 doesn't close the program until the master key has been entered.

Why the game has to be minimized in exclusive mode

In exclusive fullscreen mode, the game's picture goes straight to the monitor. At that moment Windows isn't composing the image from different windows, so any other window — even one pinned “always on top” — simply never reaches the screen. That's a limitation of the mode itself, not of Antidrot.

The only honest way to show the window is to take the game out of exclusive mode. To do this, Antidrot minimizes the fullscreen game once before showing its window. The game doesn't close: it keeps running and stays on the taskbar, where it can be restored.

The downside of this approach is that it's abrupt. Instead of a calm window over the picture, the game suddenly vanishes from the screen, which is especially annoying in an online match. Also, if the game is restored in exclusive mode, it may cover the window again. That's why it's better to switch the display mode in advance.

Tip: switch the game to borderless windowed

Borderless is the most convenient mode for playing alongside Antidrot. The picture stays full-screen, and the reminder window appears on top without anything being minimized. How to switch:

1. Open the game's graphics or video settings.
2. Find the “Display mode”, “Window mode” or “Screen mode” option.
3. Choose the option called something like Borderless, Borderless windowed, Windowed fullscreen or Fullscreen windowed.
4. Save the settings. Some games will ask you to restart them.

A nice bonus: in this mode, switching windows with Alt+Tab is usually faster and doesn't make the screen flicker. For popular online games and how long their matches last, see Fortnite and CS2 playtime.

The easiest way to check how the window looks over your game is a short access key, for example 60.60.300: one minute of play, a one-minute break and a 5-minute total limit. Enter the key, start the game in the mode you want and wait for the window to appear. How to get such a key is explained in Access key: how to give your child time.

Why the window doesn't take focus

Focus is simply which window currently receives key presses and mouse clicks. If the Antidrot window took focus, the game would stop responding in the middle of a fight: the character would freeze, and your child couldn't even press pause. The result would be a lost match, lost progress and resentment towards the parents.

That's why the Antidrot window is made non-activating. It appears on top, but the keyboard and mouse stay with the game. Your child sees the reminder and can calmly:

• pause the game;
• save;
• finish the moment and leave the match.

The window only gets focus when someone clicks it — for example, to type a key into the field. Clicking the game gives focus back to it. Why a gentle ending works better than an abrupt one is covered in Gentle gaming limits without the drama.

This design has an honest flip side: since input isn't blocked, it's technically possible to keep playing with the window in the middle of the screen. Antidrot is a reminder and part of a family agreement, not a lock. How children get around restrictions and what to do about it is covered in When a child bypasses parental controls.

Games and launchers running as administrator

Windows separates programs running with standard rights from programs run as administrator. A standard program can't manage the windows of “administrator” programs — for example, it can't minimize such a game. So if a game or its launcher runs as administrator, run Antidrot as administrator too:

• right-click Antidrot and choose “Run as administrator”;
• or open the shortcut's Properties, click “Advanced” on the “Shortcut” tab and tick “Run as administrator”.

If games are launched the normal way, Antidrot doesn't need administrator rights. The program works fine without them: set up by an installer from a USB flash drive, with no internet. You can download it from the site.

What's impossible: the secure desktop

Windows shows some screens on a separate, secure desktop:

• the User Account Control (UAC) prompt, “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?”;
• the screen that opens when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del;
• the lock screen.

No ordinary program can draw there, and Antidrot doesn't try to get around this. When you return to the normal desktop, the window will be back in place if the timer says it should be on screen.

If the window didn't appear over the game

Go through this short list — the cause is usually one of these:

1. Time isn't up yet. During play time the window is supposed to be hidden. It appears when a break starts or the total limit runs out.
2. The program isn't running. It usually starts by itself when the computer is turned on; if it was closed with the master key, run it again.
3. The game runs as administrator. Then Antidrot must be run as administrator too — see the section above.
4. The game was restored in exclusive mode. Switch it to borderless windowed, and the window will be visible without any minimizing.
5. The secure desktop is on screen. The window can never appear over a UAC prompt or the lock screen.

The bottom line is simple: switch games to borderless, run Antidrot with the same rights as the game, and the reminder will appear over the picture calmly, without minimizing anything and without taking away control.