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Author Topic: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)  (Read 15101 times)

Offline Igor

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How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« on: April 19, 2008, 01:18:30 AM »
This tutorial will show you how to set up Halo & Xfire, so that you can play in a window. A window is basically where Halo doesn't fill up the whole screen, and you can Alt+Tab out without any text lag. If Halo freezes only Halo will, so you can Alt+Tab out again and fix the issue, rather than it being in full screen, and freezing up your whole computer.

Loading through Halo (GameSpy)
  • Right-click on your Halo icon (shortcut) and go to properties.
  • Make sure you are in the "shortcut" tab.
  • In the target line, add (SPACE)-window
  • Click ok. Now when you start Halo through this shortcut, it will be in a window.
  • (SPACE) Refers to a space, don't actually type (SPACE)

It should look like this when done:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo\halo.exe" -window

Loading through Xfire.
  • When in Xfire, go to Tools > Options
  • Select the game tab, and select Halo from the list.
  • Check the "manual setup" circle.
  • The lower section should say "Advanced Options, and "Extra Command line parameters:"
  • In the box below, put "-window" (without the quotes)
  • Click apply, then ok.

Now when you boot from Halo or Xfire, you will always be able to play in a window.

Adjusting window size!
To adjust the size of the window, you can either:
  • Change the game resolution, this will make the window bigger or smaller, depending on the resolution size.
  • Drag the corner as you would a normal window.

Other command line parameters
It's not just -window you can add to the target lines, there are many other commands you can put in to do various things, follow the same steps as above, but just leave a space between each, and you can add many more:
-console :This enables you to access the rcon commands in Halo, and kick/ban people in yours other peoples servers.
-novideo :This stops Halo from playing the videos at the beginning when you load Halo, such as the bungie and Gearbox one.

There are many more, but they mainly focus on graphical settings, and you can find them with a quick Google search. Or check out this thread by Chaindog, which covers more of the parameters: Link

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Offline Draucus

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2008, 11:34:58 AM »
 -novideo
YES, I have to use this one!!!
Thanks a lot, Igor! ;D


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Offline BFM_DarkFyr

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2008, 12:37:47 PM »
Huh. I have a mac and when i start up the game, it has the option to play in a window or leave it full screen.  :interesting:

Offline BFM_Hydra

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2008, 03:37:17 AM »
That's  because you're on a Mac. Windows is different. Most fullscreened window games do not have the option of being played in a window unless you use settings like this one.

Well written, Igor.


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Offline BFM_DarkFyr

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2008, 01:13:36 PM »
Well I guess PC's and macs each have their advantages and disadvantages


Offline BFM_dStruct

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2008, 06:25:01 AM »
This is a huge Help THANKS!!!!!

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Offline Filla

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2008, 09:35:10 PM »
You cant run in a window and have console can you?


Offline MrMxyzptlk

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #7 on: November 27, 2008, 02:39:45 AM »
You cant run in a window and have console can you?

Yes you can.

The console comes up the same way in either full-screen or window(ed) mode....
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Offline ·WídgêT·

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #8 on: November 27, 2008, 12:09:39 PM »
Question: does putting too much code into the target line drop FPS?, I currently have 4

 -console
 -window
 -novideo
 -screenshot

hopefully this won't slow it down will it?


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Offline MrMxyzptlk

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #9 on: November 27, 2008, 01:27:28 PM »


Not necessarily because of "too many" command line directives, but the directives THEMSELVES might cause some lag: On a prior machine (that had to run Halo on low settings...) I stopped using "-screenshot" because of "unwanted side effects" like slight lag, and a complete freeze of the game for a split second whenever I used it....

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Offline Soul

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2009, 11:52:14 PM »
Well, This was very helpful thanks xD ;D

Offline Bulk

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2010, 10:07:13 AM »
whenever i do it it does not work, halo just opens normally, the only thing that i can think of is when i do it and press ok, it says, press continue to prove administrator status, i do this and it works no problem, any suggestions?
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Offline Tanxs1

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2010, 11:34:15 AM »
You have to click "apply" then "ok". I don't think it works when you just click "ok".


Offline MrMxyzptlk

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2010, 05:29:45 PM »


Set the shortcut that you use to start it up to "Run as Administrator" (AND set it to run in "XP Compatibility mode"....)

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Offline gamepanther

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Re: How to play Halo in a window! (Tutorial)
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2010, 11:57:31 PM »
what does -screenshot do?



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