Alt-Tabbing during the logout countdown

I understand the 30-second logout timer is a necessary evil. But is there any reason I should have to stare at it when I logout to the title screen or character select? It's not really that big a deal, but it's kind of a pain to have to do nothing but sit and watch the countdown because doing anything -- even alt-tabbing to a different program -- means having to log out all over again.

Now, I'm not advocating getting rid of the countdown altogether; it serves a necessary function. I'm not asking for the option of letting me go back to the login or character select screens before the countdown ends, but keeping the character online like when you logout to your desktop; that could lead to problems with multiple characters from the same account trying to be online at once, even if it's only for five seconds or so. I'm not even suggesting the countdown be shortened to ten or fifteen seconds (though now that I think about it...).

But here's what I am proposing:

• Replace the current "press any key to cancel the countdown and stay logged in" setup with a pop-up with a "Cancel Logout" button. Kind of like the one that comes up when you logout to your desktop that lets you exit right away, but with an almost opposite function. Pressing a key would no longer cancel the logout operation, only pressing the on-screen button would. OR:
• Make "press any key" not really mean any key. Allow certain keys or combinations of keys to be pressed without cancelling the logout operation -- say, Alt+Tab.

if you run in windowed mode you can just click outside the coh window which will not interrupt the countdown (i frequently do this cause when im counting down im reading forums lol)

running windowed mode also makes it easier to run outside programs such as herostats/sentinel and mids

For what it's worth, I have found a workaround to this, assuming you're using a PC: hold down the Windows button before you hit quit. Once the timer starts, release the button, and the taskbar will pop-up, leaving the quit timer ticking down in the background.

But yeah, it'd be nice if it just, y'know, worked without a workaround.

I always want to do something during that 30seconds too.

If you are quick you can get around it. Right after you trigger the logout to character select or whatever hit your windows key. This should pull up your windows task bar and allow you to switch apps while the countdown is now going in the background.

This doesn't help you if the countdown has already started and if you switch back to COH before it finishes you are stuck.

The reason that countdown is there is (im assuming) to properly log out of that toon (with exit to desktop the timer counts down even after the exit now button is pressed), if there were a logout to char select button with countdown (Like the exit to desktop button) let you log to the toon select and have that toon unable to login for the duration of the countdown, all others "should" be uneffected

That paragraph may be confusing