Okay, so to avoid spoilers, this will be kinda tricky and sound kinda funny. But when you minimize the game and then return it to fullscreen again, the game can lose certain graphical effects. In one case, beams of light. This was irritating as i couldnt solve a puzzle based on them.

The second was much worse. Because it removed the "mist" effect. So, in a certain point in the end game where this becomes significantly relevant to the story...The mist was not there. Needless to say, I was wondering what all the NPCs were talking about, and why I was using the weather-clearing shout..

I did figure it out of course, but it kinda ruined that part of the game, which was not a part of the game I think bethesda wanted ruined.

Of course i'm pretty sure they tried to make it impossible to re-maximize a window, but you can do so easily enough (Alt+tab out. Then click the minimized skyrim on the bottom toolbar, then hit the windows key, then click anywhere and it brings the game back up without shutting down.) Im guessing that part of the game was supposed to be a tad more interesting than what I saw.

Why would you want to minimise the game anyway?

In my experience most games don't play nice when you do that...

Well, let's see--the game minimizes itself when the stupid sticky keys warning comes up, when Windows 7 just has to tell you there's a new update for Adobe Reader (which happens roughly 10 times a day), when you hit the "start" button instead of the "z" button, etc. etc.

I believe you can play the game in Windowed mode by checking a box on the "options" menu item in the opening menu. However, in my experience this means you have to play in a window the size of a postcard unless you know the magic formula for fixing it. I don't.

I haven't had the graphics problem because if I minimize the game it just locks up and never comes back. ...