Troubleshooting Full Screen Mode in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Honestly, getting MW2 to run in proper full screen isn’t always straightforward. Sometimes it just refuses to switch, or the option is totally grayed out. If you’re like me, you’ve probably tried toggling in the menu, only to find nothing works. Here’s what finally helped me get it working—hope it saves someone a whole lot of frustration.

Quit or Minimize the NZXT CAM Tool

This one caught me off guard—NZXT CAM, those monitoring tools for CPU and SSD speeds, can be subtly problematic. Some folks run it minimized or in the background thinking that’s fine, but apparently, running NZXT CAM can interfere with fullscreen modes—especially if it’s actively monitoring.

I noticed that as soon as I closed it completely, the game suddenly allowed me to switch to full screen.

To do this, just right-click the NZXT CAM icon in the system tray and select Exit. Or, do Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, find “NZXT CAM” under Processes, and click End Task. After closing it, relaunch MW2 and see if the full screen option pops up.

Sometimes, a quick reboot also helps just to clear any lingering conflicts. This wasn’t obvious at first—took a lot of trial and error—but for me, quitting NZXT CAM was the magic fix.

Close or Uninstall Conflicting Applications like MSI Afterburner and Dragon Center

Overlay programs are also culprits—MSI Afterburner, Dragon Center (for MSI laptops/desktops), even overlay tools like Medal or Discord overlays. They hook into APIs, overlay graphics, and sometimes restrict fullscreen toggling or cause weird display bugs. I found that closing or disabling these apps beforehand makes a huge difference.

You can right-click the tray icons and choose Exit or Close. For a deeper clean, open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), scan for processes like “MSI Afterburner.exe,” “MSI Dragon Center,” “MedalClient.exe,” or any overlay related programs, and end them.

Uninstalling might be worth considering if the problem keeps coming back. Also, don’t forget to disable overlay features in Discord (Esc > Settings > Overlay) or Steam (Steam > Settings > In-Game), because those can latch onto a game and mess with windows modes.

In my experience, background apps like Microsoft PowerToys (FancyZones), Outplayed, Overwolf, SteelSeries.GG—these can also sneakily cause conflicts. Honestly, closing or uninstalling them before launching MW2 usually clears the issue. It’s a matter of trial and error to see which ones are causing the trouble, but it’s worth doing a quick clean-up.

Use NVIDIA’s Driver-Level Settings to Force Full Screen

If you’re on an NVIDIA GPU, GeForce Experience has a feature to override game settings at the driver level, which can help when the game’s in-game options seem broken. For me, this was a lifesaver because sometimes in-game menus just don’t let you pick fullscreen properly.

Open GeForce Experience (either from the tray icon or start menu), go to the Games tab, and see if MW2 is listed. If it’s not, hit SCAN GAMES. Clicking on MW2, then selecting Optimize or going to Details, you’ll see a Display Mode dropdown. Set that to Full Screen (recommended).

This enforces fullscreen through the driver, bypassing whatever is wrong in the game’s settings. After applying these changes, launch MW2—and usually, it now opens in full screen without fuss. It’s not perfect and sometimes feels a bit hacky, but for stubborn cases, it’s been a real fix for me.

Disable Unnecessary Startup Apps

A lot of background apps can start up with Windows and interfere with display mode switching. Especially overlays, monitoring tools, or even some utility apps—these tend to latch onto graphics APIs without you realizing it.

Go into Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and switch to the Startup tab. Disable anything suspicious: MSI apps, Discord Overlay, Nvidia GeForce Experience (if you launch it manually), or any third-party monitoring tools. Restart your PC to be safe, then try launching MW2 again.

For me, cutting out all the background noise made a huge difference—game now switches to full screen without issue. Sometimes it’s just a matter of reducing conflicting background processes, which is quick to test.

Keep Your Drivers Updated via NVIDIA’s App

Outdated drivers may cause all sorts of weird bugs—full screen toggling included. GeForce Experience can automatically check and install the latest drivers, which is often the simplest fix.

Open the app, go to the Drivers tab, and see if updates are available. If yes, click Download and then Express Install. Once it’s done, reboot. After that, relaunch MW2, go into its graphics settings, and try switching to full screen. Having the latest drivers reduces conflicts and bugs that might cause display issues. It’s a no-brainer step I’d recommend doing regularly anyway.

Honestly, getting MW2 to run full screen sometimes felt like chasing shadows. Between background apps, driver issues, and Windows quirks, it’s easy to get stuck. But these steps—quitting overlay apps, updating drivers, forcing fullscreen via NVIDIA—made a big difference.

For me, it was a matter of narrowing down what was causing the block. Hope this helps anyone else stuck in the same boat. It took way longer than it should have to figure out, but now I’m back to enjoying the game in full resolution. Good luck, and don’t give up!