Can't ALT-TAB to Firewall Message

[Gav]

Hi all,

Having a running problem while using games and my LAN.

If I play a game and try to start a Multiplayer game, it will freeze. This is because my Firewall has detected the game trying to access the Network, and has popped up a warning dialog box asking if I want it to allow access.
The problem being that some games I've come across wont allow ALT-TAB switching in order to answer the firewalls message. Even pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL will not show Task Manager, as its kept behind the game. With most games, when I've pressed CTRL-ALT-DEL, you can see the standard windows pointer but cannot see the dialog box. At this point I can either randomly click where I think the correct button is, or more generally I have to reset the PC.

Is there any way of forcing XP to bring dialog boxes and windows in front of games?

I now add the game executables to the firewalls ALLOW list manually, but this can be a pain in the rear, especially when the most obvious EXE is just a launcher for the actual game EXE.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated - and guranteed its going to be so flamin' obvious I'll spend the rest of the week kicking myself!


XP Home SP2
CA ETrust AV and Firewall (essentially ZoneAlarm Pro)
Athlon 2600
GF5500
512MB
Nvidia NForce 2 chipset.



Gav

[Radical Dreamer]

Can you not manually add the game to the list of safe apps?

[ilovetheusers]

I have the same issue when playing COH. Due to constant updates, the firewall stops the game from getting to the net. My solution was to turn off the firewall before I started internet games.

If you do this and you don't have a router between you and the net, make sure you run windows update frequently. :)

[Gav]

Thanks ILTU,

I was thinking that I had missed an obvious key-combo that took you out of anything.

I sort of found a solution last night - press Windows Key, UP then ENTER. Sends my PC to suspend mode - re-awaken and the game is minimised. From here you can either add the real executable to the Firewall ALLOW list, or End Task it if needed.

Might work with other games but I know some disable the Windows Keys.

Radical Dream - thanks for the answer but I had already mentioned that I add the game exe to the ALLOW list manually but I was looking for a simpler way of getting to the firewall message.


Gav

[Archer]

Try Ctrl+Esc it should bring up the start menu and minimise the game.

[Gav]

Try Ctrl+Esc it should bring up the start menu and minimise the game.


Thank Archer - will try it....I have a feeling I've had a go at that combination, though...

Gav