Yeah looks like they have the game made not to let you have anything open on top of it.
Myself, I use a 2nd monitor on my system to keep things open while I game
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(Monitors, stats, memory, network, ping, email, chat)
Also keep in mind that the pin will make a difference on which server you connect to .
While some will give you a bad ping others will give you a good ping. It all depends on the router the connect has to take to get to the server and back.
Shane