Alt-tab out of fullscreen leads to a DirectX error and game closing.

[Grit]

Hmm, didn't think a bug would land in tech support... oh well.

FFXI was designed this way, and FFXIV is designed the same way.. therefore it is not a bug. It's just a feature that was excluded for whatever reason. Either that, or SE knows nothing about PC programming (no offense).

The whole bot/RMT reasoning is nonsense.
Why? Simple: If they don't want us to be able to alt-tab to another application, why is the game not crashing in windowed mode? What stops someone from running FFXIV in windowed mode and use any unauthorized software that way instead of full screen?

That's what you would assume, right? But who really knows? I don't use bot programs or anything of the sort, so I don't know what difference it actually makes.

FFXI didn't even have a regular windowed mode until many years after release. And I don't remember hearing an explanation for that, either.