I get asked this question all the time so, I decided to write a mini-tutorial on how to run your game in windowed mode. I spelled out the steps so even computer novices can use this tutorial. These instructions presume you have some kind of screen capture software installed on your computer. (If these instructions exist elsewhere, I couldn't find them on a quick search.)

The prime problem that people new to the game have, is taking photos of either their in game activity, new body shop items or, new objects because their game window runs in full screen mode. When they want to take a picture, they have use the in game camera, which takes a photo of the whole window and then they have to minimize the game to search for their screen capture in the storytelling folder and many times their screen capture isn't even there. And, if they try use a third party screen capture utility, like SnagIt or Jascapture, etc. it kicks them out of the game.

If you'd like to keep your hair on your head and keep your game running while you take pictures, try this:

1. Find your desktop Sims 2 game icon - (This works for all the game EP's.)
2. Use your right mouse button to click on the Sims 2 game icon to open the drop down menu
3. Select 'Properties' to open the The Sims 2 (EP) Properties window.
4. Find the Target line and click once on it, then, using your right arrow key, move your mouse to the end of the line.
5. After the last quotation mark , put in one space and -w (see screen capture image)
6. Click the OK button
7. The next time you open your game, it will run in a smaller window mode and you can still access your other desktop items without having to close your game window.
8. Now you can use your preferred screen capture utility to grab just the part of the image that you want rather than the full screen.