It use to work, I'd play it in windowed mode so I could check my other things without having to exit out of the game to just check an IM. Well a while back when I would run it in windowed mode it'd start up, but it's invisible. You see the bar thingy in the task bar, and I can click on it. I can also press ESC to quicken the scenes like the logo and the intro. But I can't see anything. All I see is my desktop, but I'm in the game. Is there anyway to fix this? My brother in law installed the game and I'm waiting for him to get a day off his work to come and help me fix this but I thought I'd ask you guys :L
I am not tech savvy so please put a lot of stuff in layman's terms. xD

That's basically it. It runs perfectly in fullscreen with the minor chance the game might freeze up when you exit the game thus causing you to restart the computer. But I'd love to play windoed mode again, it's just so simple to navigate.

If you guys need stuff like info to identify what it might be just ask and tell me where to find it and I'll post it.
Thank you SO much to those who help me.

Look at two lines in your Oblivion.ini under the [display] list.


iLocation Y=0
iLocation X=0

These values should be 0. If not, then set both lines to 0, then save.

If you're not sure where it is installed, then go to "computer" select your C: drive, and enter oblivion.ini in the search field (upper right corner). It will take a few seconds... Once the file is found it will list the directory (remember this for future reference). Double click on the file to open.

This should fix it.

Unless of course you want the window placed somewhere other than the upper left corner of your screen ! - in which case the number it is set to will be the number of pixels in and down from the upper left corner of your screen, -- ie if you want a 800x600 window in the center of a 1680x1050 display you would use x= (1680 - 800) /2 = 880/2 = 440 so X=440 (to move the box 440 pixel in to the center of the screen also leaving 440 pixels on the other side of the window!) and Y=(1050 - 600)\2 = 450\2 = 225 (to move the window down 225 pixels from the top of the screen also leaving 225 pixels on the bottom)

In addition to those 2 lines you also need to adjust :

bFull Screen=0 : to tell the game to play in windowed mode
iSize W=800 ; To set the width of the window
iSize H=600 ; To set the length of the window

So for a 800x 600 window centered on a 1680 x 1050 monitor you would use :

iLocation Y=225
iLocation X=440
bFull Screen=0
iSize W=800
iSize H=600

I see.

I both misread the OP and misunderstood a past thread on this topic. The window is to be re-sized? Since I often play in window mode with no problems, I was going by my ini settings:

iLocation Y=0
iLocation X=0
bFull Screen=0
iSize W=1600
iSize H=900


So with this configuration for a window 800x600

Y=150
X=400

I would have no problems until maybe changing the game resolution?

So you have a 1600x900 res monitor and want a 800x600 window in the center of the monitor -- so
Y = 900 (height) - 600(window height) /2 (to center space on each side) = 150
X = 1600 - 800/2 = 400

So yes that is correct -- but you would then also need to change iSize W = 800 and iSize H = 600 to tell the game how big of a window you want it to draw !

And yes if you change the screen resolution and leave the settings the same it will still try to draw an 800x600 window starting 400 pixels in and 150 pixels down from the upper left corner of the screen (which will no longer be centered and may even wind up off the screen in some cases !)