Windows 10: Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10

Maybe there is something wrong with the cable?
They tend to start malfunction all of a sudden without a clue to why or when.

 

thank you for your prompt reply - do you mean the Samsung separate monitor cable? - I have removed it, reinserted it, switched off the computer 3 times and restarted it...

 

My old Dell Latitude C840 has some BIOS settings to set some external display options. It also had a setting for docking to create a new profile for each docking station, or to reuse the existing docked profile. If you don't want to trade your laptop in for a 16 year-old Dell Latitude C840, you could use powershell to query the docking status and configure the displays as you wish.

 

One consideration is that a display adapter supports a limited set of resolutions, and the display also supports a limited set of resolutions. If you are lucky, your video adapter supports the native resolution of the display, otherwise you will need to either compromise and find a common resolution you can live with, or replace either the video adapter or the display.

If your video adapter doesn't support the native resolution of the display, you may want to set the monitor to adhere to the resolution or stretch the resolution to fill the screen. Adhering to the resolution leaves some black borders for the unused pixels but it also maintains the aspect ratio. If the display stretches the resolution, there are no black boarders. but it distorts the aspect ratio. If you maintain the aspect ratio, a circle will be displayed as a circle, but it you stretch the resolution, a circle will be displayed as an ellipse.

 

We recently purchased a Dell XPS 15 with an NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5, Windows 10 Pro, Thunderbolt docking system. I am having the following issues.

Text is so small on laptop we can hardly read. (Yes we are 50yrs old) but seriously it's too small. The only way that I have been able to increase the size is by sliding the sizing up to 300% however . . .that causes additional monitor issues.

When a calendar app is moved from the laptop to an external monitor you can not edit it in any way. ..This one has be baffled.

Dragging windows to different monitors is a HUGE pain. While dragging I get a POP up of different options of how I might like to have the screen appear. Split right/left, Split top/bottom . .etc. More than half of the time the window will pop back up on another monitor. I forgot to mention that we are using 2 additional monitors. One using HDMI and the other using the Mini DisplayPort.

Using AutoCAD LT 2018 the screens seem to be a little jumpy and glitchy.

any help to any of the above would be GREATLY appreciated, If I didn't describe the issue in enough detail please let me know.

 

Hi everyone,
This is regarding a secondary display problem I'm facing. I recently changed the display settings to second screen only inorder to increase the resolution to 2K( my laptop only supports 1080p). But accidentally I changed it to 4K. The secondary display doesnt support 4K. So it shows not supported. Is there a way I can reset the secondary display settings?

 

Hello @sravanp22, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

You should be able to boot into Safe Mode, and then change your screen resolution to what you wanted.

Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10 Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

 

I have an LCD monitor and a plasma TV both hooked up to the same computer. I have set the display properties to "extend these displays". The taskbar is displayed at the bottom of both displays. What I would like to happen, is when I click on the Edge or Chrome or File Explorer icon (or whatever) on the taskbar, the desired app would open on the display of which I clicked the icon, rather than whichever display that program was opened and closed on last. Is there a way to set Windows 10 to do that?

It's annoying to have to drag and drop the desired window from one screen to the other. When both monitors are sitting side by side on the same desk, this isn't really a problem. When you have your TV setup some distance away from your PC desk, it can make seeing both monitors simultaneously from your desired viewing position to do the drag and drop tricky.

With all the people dual purposing their TV's and PC's as home theater rigs, I can't believe Microsoft has not anticipated and accommodated this need.

 

Hello @Nihilistic, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

You can use step 2 in Option One of the tutorial below to set Show taskbar buttons on to Taskbar where window is open to do so.

Hide or Show Taskbar on Multiple Displays in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials

 

Hello, and thank you *Smile

I'm not sure I'm describing well what I want to achieve. The taskbar is already displayed on both displays.

When I settle down into my big comfy recliner to watch a video, or bring up Chrome to watch some Youtube videos, it would be nice when I click on the Chrome icon on the taskbar displayed at the bottom of my TV, if Chrome would open on my TV, regardless of which display it was opened and closed last. I use a Logitech wireless keyboard with built in touch pad to control my PC from my recliner. And when I sit down at my PC desk and open Chrome (or any other app on the taskbar displayed on my PC display), I want it to open on my PC monitor, not my TV. If it opens on my TV, I have to turn the TV on so I can drag the window back to the PC.

 

I see what you mean now.

Unfortunately, it will open at the same location it was last closed at. *Sad

 

I have a laptop and two external monitors, set to use Extended Display. Two questions:

1. For those applications that refuse to open on any monitor other than the primary display, what information should I pass back to the application developer? I'm sure that there's a property, registry setting, something, that they need to code to support... an MSDN article showing the .NET class for "multiple displays remember last monitor" or something.

2. Why don't applications launch on the monitor that has focus when the app was launched? If I click a taskbar icon on Monitor3, why doesn't that program start on Monitor 3? Is this a bug or a setting/feature I need to enable somewhere? I mean from a User Experience perspective, clearly I'm looking at Monitor3 and not expecting the program to pop up over on Monitor1.

EDIT: adding a 3rd, related question:

3. Right-clicking the Start Icon, things like the Command Prompt and the "Run" dialog open on the primary display, regardless of which monitor was used to click Start. Maddening. If I wanted to work on the Primary Display I'd be working on the primary display!

 

Is there a way to change the screen layout from the command line? I'd like to do this in a script.

 

It's possible with a PowerShell script: Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Change My Desktop Monitor Resolution via Windows PowerShell? Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog

 

Thanks but I think that only covers changing the resolution whereas I want to be able to set the layout, or relative positions of the monitors and not the resolutions.