FFXIV freezes up when alt-tabbing from windowed mode

Hello!

The past few months I've had this issue that is becoming increasingly more frequent.
I run FFXIV in windowed mode, since I tend to have skype text conversations going all the time and I'd like to be able to notice them.
This has been fine, but recently the game has started freezing up for 30 seconds - 1 minute when I tab back in. It greys out and says that it is "Not responding" in the top.
It is extremely frustrating since I can end up alt-tabbing quite a bit, and it's now so disruptive I can't check messages during dungeons etc (I usually check them when there is a natural pause, ie before a boss) and it's really just getting on my nerves.
Sometimes I also see anything in the background - like a browser window - flash through as if I had clicked on it, but it's only for like a second, just like a blink. I don't know if that could be related to my issue.

I run windows 7, with my Gainward GeForce GTX 670 2GB graphicscard and 8 GB of Ram. My computer is about 1½ years old and all of my drivers appear to be up to date. I have XIV installed on my SSD.

I have tried eliminating background programmes, and also tried to run XIV as the first thing after a restart, but the problem persists. Any help would be appreciated.