If you are a Gaming user or game lover, then you must be familiar with Discord, The popular VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) application provides quick communications like video calls, voice chats, text chats and even sharing screenshots with their friends list. And one of its special features is the Discord Overlay feature, which only comes with the latest version of the discord app that combines your text chat & voice with your game-play by showing a semi-transparent window on your screen while playing games. But unfortunately, some of the users experienced Discord Overlay not working in Windows 10. During the game Discord not showing the Overlay option after Pressing the Shift + F1 key, thus making communication difficult.
Why is Discord overlay not working in games?
Basically, the Discord overlay feature only works with games that it’s been specifically designed for. Some of these games include Minecraft, Fortnite, CS:GO, WoW and DOTA 2. And some games actually don’t support this feature. So first, make sure your game supports the Discord Overlay feature.
Again there is a chance security software, such as antivirus might flag Discord or its overlay feature as suspicious. or third-party software conflict may be causing the issue.
Discord overlay option not showing
The reason behind Discord Overlay Not Showing is a minor bug that you can easily fix. So if your Discord overlay isn’t working after pressing Shift + F1, apply the solutions listed below to fix the problem.
Close all the games and applications and reboot your PC. Doing so can help to fix lots of minor gaming issues.
Third-party security software like Antiviruses might flag the Discord or its overlay feature as suspicious and they might be blocking it, Let’s Disable the Antivirus software and check if this helps fix the issue.
Turn on the overlay option for your game
The Discord overlay might not be working because the option isn’t turned on for your game. Let’s first check and make sure the in-game overlay is enabled in Discord.
- Launch discord, and click the gear icon at the bottom to open the User Settings.
- From the App Settings section, choose the Overlay in the left panel
- make sure you turned on the toggle next to Enable in-game overlay.
- Go to the Games in the left panel, and In the Game Activity section, make sure that you have turned on the In-game Overlay feature for the games you want to play.
- Well, If you see the option turned off, click on the monitor button next to the game, and it will turn on.
If the game you’re playing is not on the list, you need to add your games to the Discord app by clicking it.
Now start your game again and press the Shift + F1 key to see if the Discord overlay works.
Change the Discord overlay Hotkey
Again conflict hotkeys are sometimes the reason for facing the Discord overlay not working issue. Let’s Assign the new hotkey to enable the Discord Overlay.
- Open the User Settings on the Discord app,
- select the Overlay option on the left, here alongside the Enable In-game Overlay Option, you will find the option to assign the hotkey
- Assign the new hotkey for example, Shift + F10 and Save the settings
- Now run your game and press the newly assigned hotkey (Shift + F10) to start Discord Overlay while playing the game
Run Discord as Administrator
If you didn’t provide administrator privileges to the Discord app to create and display an in-game overlay, that might cause the Discord overlay option not showing the problem. Let’s run Discord as administrator and check if the problem is solved.
- Right-click the shortcut of Discord on your desktop and select run as administrator.
- Or Right-click the shortcut of Discord on your desktop and select Properties.
- Here in the pop-up window, move to the Compatibility tab and check the option Run this program as an administrator.
- Click apply and ok, now open Discord and rerun your game to see if the overlay is working.
Disable hardware acceleration in Discord
The Hardware Acceleration feature in Discord uses GPU and sound card to make Discord run smoothly, But sometimes it might cause the Discord Overlay not to work by interrupting it. Let’s disable hardware acceleration in Discord to check if this helps fix the problem.
- Launch the Discord App and open User Settings by click the gear icon at the bottom
- From the App settings section select the Appearance option.
- Here you will find the Hardware Acceleration toggle,
- Toggle off Hardware Acceleration if it is turned on
- Relaunch your game and check if the Discord overlay works now.
Rescale your display
Next, make sure the display scale is set to 100%, Some users have experienced this problem “Discord overlay not working” when their monitor is not set to the recommended scale of 100%. If you have the monitor setting a custom scale of 125% or 150%, you should try setting this to 100%. To do this
- Press Windows key + I to open the Settings app,
- Click on the system then Display,
- Here Look for Scale and layout and make sure your display is set to 100% (Recommended).
- Rerun your game to see if the issue still exists.
Reinstall Discord
If none of the solutions help to fix the discord overlay not working problem, then there might be something wrong with the Discord App. We recommend reinstall the Discord app with the latest version which probably helps.
- Press Windows key + R, type appwiz.cpl and click ok,
- This will open programs and features window,
- Locate discord, right-click then select uninstall and follow on-screen instructions to remove the app from your PC.
- Reboot your PC for the changes to take effect.
- Now Visit Discord official website and download the latest version of the Discord app for windows PC,
- Run the setup.exe and follow on-screen instructions to install Discord on your PC,
- Once done, open Discord. Then run your game and add it to your Discord.
- Enable the Discord overlay feature for your game.
Check to see if your in-game overlay is working now.
Here a video shows the steps to fix the Discord Overlay Not Showing or Working issue on windows 10.
Also read
- Solved: Discord Stuck on Connecting to voice channel or sending messages.
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- How To Make Your Computer Faster And Speed Up Your Windows 10 PC
- Solved: Unidentified network no internet access windows 10, 8.1 and 7
- Solved: Can’t print documents, Printer Driver is unavailable in Windows 10
