The firewall causes games I play to minimize if there is activity through the firewall. For most games this isn’t a problem. Just maximize the game and keep playing. But for one game (my favorite) minimizing causes the game to freeze. It does this no matter what (through alt-tab etc.). Is there a way I can get the firewall to not take focus and minimize games and other applications that use full screen mode?
Bump
Okay. Nobody knows.
what is the firewall asking?
you should answer all questions for a game before playing. as a firewall rule that is enough, i would suggest “allow game.exe OUTgoing TCP+UDP”.
theres a “game mode” in version 5 (accessable through right click on icon in tray), but as i am not sure what is allowed or ignored while that, i CANT suggest you to use it.
in the worst case it could simply allow (and remember) stuff happening in background, just to avoid a question… and i would not want that something is allowed without my intention.
when i play some games, they will freeze if i dont answer the questions. so its my routine to answer the things before i play.
Well, this particular game (Oblivion) that freezes if minimized doesn’t attempt to connect to the internet. I’m going to try and manually set the CPU priority and see if that helps.
if nothing helps, use for a single short start of the game defense+ “trainings mode”. notice, everything will be allowed and learned while that. SO dont use it longer than until you reached the menu, and switch back as soon as that.
or you can watch in the “happenings” window of defense+ to see if something was blocked. then you know what you have to allow for that game, without using that mode.
after using trainings mode of defense+ (for a little moment) i allways watch in the rule window of defense+ if there were new rules for other programs created also… those i erase then.
new ones are on top or on bottom…
of course, allready existing rules may be “expand” also, if the program was running while comodo is in trainings mode.
generally, dont forget to switch back fast.
It is the auto updater that is causing it. It has been happening to me to. Not just in games but full screen video in Media Player Classic. MPC tells you what application caused it to “lose focus” and it is the comodo auto updater every time.
Confirmed. cfpupdate steal windows focus from Firefox for 5-10 seconds, then Firefox back.
Fullscreen games jumping to desktop too.
Latest version of Comodo Firewall .1142
Windows XP home (all updates).
You have to use “game mode”. Then all “ASK” messages will be postponed until you manually exit game mode.
(Some rules, will be auto allowed, if known application) .
And for the update, just turn it off, and use it manually from time to time.
I know it is not a fix, but it works.
contra: the game mode is to be enabled each time, and to disable then. also it has effect on “not game related files” each time.
to minimize the effect and to avoid switching, just use one time the trainings mode of defense+.
for example, in game mode the firewall is in game mode too… everything is in game mode… but ONLY defense+ needs to know the rules one time!
so dont say: “you have to use game mode”…
OK, matter of speaking, exactly.
So You don’t have to use “game mode” , but it is least complicated thing to do.
If the gui is little different (shortcuts).
/ eg. event viewer and active links could be on the right-click tray icon
/ right-click (or double-click) on app in active links could open rules edit/wizard for that app
etc. there are lot of things that could be done. EASIER ACCESS to common functions.
Sorry… missing the thread here…
I have disabled defense+, and I’m using firewall only. Saves resources, have kaspersky for antivir.
Most time I need to control apps going “out”. Router fw takes care of what’s going in mostly.
And I don’t want to have fw in “training mode”, especially at all the times because I don’t want auto-creation of rules, without consulting me first.
I want to know what, when and where is going out.
I know that training mode simplify things greatly but it is albeit the most frequent source of leaks.
This is what manual says about game mode.
Game Mode – Switches CIS 2011 to Game Mode to enable you to play your games without any interruptions from various alerts in your computer. The operations that can interfere with users’ gaming experience are either suppressed or postponed.In game mode:
* Defense+/Firewall alerts are suppressed as if they are in training mode; * AV database updates and scheduled scans are postponed until the gaming is over; * Automatic isolation of unknown applications and real-time virus detection are still functional.Deactivate Game Mode to resume alerts and scheduled scans.
So why not to use one time game mode?
Even better way is that you first kill all connections with “stop all traffic” button, then enter “game mode”, start your game, start network play/server or whatever is using network access in that game.
Exit and quit the game. Review rules created. “Start all traffic”, disable “game mode”.
Et voila 
It seems now I have it in latest Comodo Firewall even in “Game Mode”. There is no dialogs, just WoW client minimized to taskbar. In task manager I can see only AMD, Logitech, Comodo services, dragon_updater, GoogleCrashHandler, Firefox, uphclean.
WinXP 32 Pro, Comodo Firewall 6.3.294583.2937