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Discord is a platform built for gaming, but if you’re trying to chat with your friends mid-game, it’s not really possible to open up the client and start—or is it?
Thanks to the Discord in-game overlay on Windows 10, you can access many of Discord’s core features, including changing channels, switching servers, and starting voice calls. If the Discord overlay is not working, however, you won’t be able to use these features.
There are a number of reasons why Discord’s overlay might stop working. If you want to fix the problem, however, here’s what you’ll need to do.
#1 Make Sure the Discord Overlay Is Enabled
Before you start changing settings or reinstalling Discord, you might want to check that the Discord overlay is enabled. If Discord has updated, your settings may have been reset, potentially disabling the overlay in the process.
- To check this, open the Discord desktop app and press the settings icon. This is visible next to your username in the bottom left corner.
- In the settings menu, press the Overlay option on the left. To enable the Discord overlay, make sure that the Enable Overlay slider is enabled.
- If it isn’t, click the slider—the slider will turn green when the setting is enabled.
#2 Add your game to Discord
Discord has a feature by virtue of which it will get to know the game that you are playing. Thus, the status of the users will be changed to alert and will be visible the same to the others.
- If Discord doesn’t detect your game automatically, however, you’ll need to add it to your Discord settings. To do this, open Discord and press the settings icon.
- In Discord’s settings menu, press the Game Activity Discord will show you if it detects your running game at the top of the Game Activity menu.
- If it doesn’t, click the Add It option underneath. From the pop-up menu, select the running game you’re playing, then press Add Game to add it to Discord’s game list.
- Once added, Discord should know to allow the Discord overlay during your gameplay. You may need to repeat this for any other games that you play, however.
#3 Run Discord as an Administrator
If you are using discord without it being added as an administrator then, you might not be able to use certain features. To overcome these issues, you’ll need to run Discord as an administrator. You can only do this if you have the password for an administrator account on your PC, however. Before you start, make sure that Discord is fully closed with no running processes.
If that’s the case, press the Start menu and find the Discord app listed (or use the search bar to find it). Once you’ve located Discord in the Discord Inc folder, right-click it, then press the More > Run as administrator option.
#4 Disable Hardware Acceleration
Hardware acceleration is a feature that allows Discord to use the full power of PC that might be used to do various tasks. Thus, it is important to have it on your discord.
- To do this, open the Discord app, then press the settings icon in the bottom left.
- In the Discord settings menu, press the Appearance In the Advanced section, press the Hardware Acceleration slider to disable it.
- Discord will ask you to confirm that you want to disable this feature. Press Okay to do so—Discord will restart with hardware acceleration disabled.
#5 Disable other software
Now, even after taking all the steps mentioned above into consideration, still, you are not able to get rid of the issue, and then try disabling other software. For example, if you are using another full screen app, then it might cause trouble, thus, for a better functioning of the Discord, try disabling the other software. If you’re trying to use Discord with a high-performance game, you’ll need to ensure that you disable and stop as many other third-party apps as possible to give Discord the best chance of working effectively.
#6 Reinstall the Discord Desktop App
- Use the Windows Settingsmenu to remove Discord or if you want to remove all traces of the software first, you can completely uninstall it using software like Revo Uninstaller.
- Removing Discord using Windows Settings should work for most users, but if you want a completely clean break, uninstaller software like this won’t prove to be a problem.
- To remove Discord using Windows Settings, right-click the Start menu and press the Settings
- In Windows Settings, press Apps > Apps & features, then search for Discord using the search bar or scroll through and locate it manually.
- Once you’ve found the Discord entry, click it, then press Uninstall > Uninstall.
- Once Discord is reinstalled, you’ll need to sign back in and check that the overlay is enabled by following the steps above.
Conclusion
Thus, you see these are some of the ways by which you can get rid of the discord overlay not working issue and enjoy using Discord without any problem being faced by you.
