Windows 10: Shortcut: to keep Start on laptop screen, Desktop on Monitor

I have a Surface Book with an external monitor, the other day I made a typo and found my Start screen on my laptop's screen, and my Desktop screen on the monitor. I loved it!


Apparently, Win10 has an option that forces the Start screen to remain on the laptop while putting the Desktop screen on the monitor, but I can't replicate the keystrokes. Can someone tell me what the shortcut is to make this happen again?

:)

 

Windows 10 PC - Applications do not open on the monitor I click their shortcuts on.

This is driving me and my colleagues nuts. We are all using Windows 10 and we all have the same setup, a laptop connected to two 28" UHD monitors (extended desktop) and the taskbars are showing on all screens. If we go to the Windows start button on the
taskbar and use that to open an application, the application opens on a different screen than the one we used to start the app. The same goes for desktop shortcuts. A desktop shortcut could be on one monitor but when you click on it to open the app, the
app opens on another monitor!

How can you open the application on the monitor that you used to open the application? And how the heck does it choose which monitor to open on because it doesn't always open on the primary monitor and it doesn't always open on the monitor the app was closed??

The monitor that you used to open the app should be the monitor the app opens on!

 

pc shortcuts do not appear on external monitor when laptop cover is closed

What shortcuts are you referring too? Shortcuts on the desktop or taskbar?

It is possible that the screen on the external monitor is just an extension and your shortcuts are still on the screen on your laptop (think of extending your screen so it stretches both monitors).

Check your Display Settings (you can use Cortana) and look at the Multiple display drop down. (check if its duplicate or Extend)

 

Hi mikecox. Welcome to the TenForums @mikecox

Any chance you turned on Tablet mode. Click on the Notification symbol, pretty much the right most icon in Systray (task bar very right), see if the "Tablet" rectangle is blue (on).


Ken

 

Thanks for your response.

Right now, on my monitor, that icon is grayed out, as is the rotation lock icon.

But I wonder, can I get into tablet mode without removing the top of my laptop? When this happened my monitor displayed my Desktop icons and my laptop displayed my "Start menu icons". It would be nice I I could configure that setup so I could access my Start icons from my laptop while working from the Desktop on my monitor.

 

I don't know off a keying short cut to get Tablet mode.

If you go Start => Settings => Personalization => Start.

Scroll down and you will see an option to use Start Full screen.

Is yours by chance on?


Ken

 

I'm not sure these settings are relevant to this situation but checked and all my Start options are "on".

It happened again! While sliding my hand over the upper left side of the keyboard I hit something and the Start screen appeared on my laptop again. I don't know what I hit, or pressed but couldn't make it happen again.

 

Pressing the WinKey will bring up Start. So will Ctrl+Esc.

 

and if your Start screen is is full screen mode then it will fill screen.

 

I now the Window key brings up the Start screen, I didn't know Ctrl-Esc did as well. I wonder why you would you use that option, 2 keys vs one?

But the issue isn't how to open the Start Screen, I do it all the time, but when I do it opens on my monitor, which is fine, most of the time. But there are times when I would prefer to pop it up on my laptop's screen, without disturbing what I'm doing on the monitor. That possibility hadn't occurred to me until I started seeing it happen, by accident, when I was doing something else. The problem is that I don't know what keys I accidentally pressed, so I can't replicate the action. I thought maybe there was a shortcut that I was unaware of that others might know about but that doesn't appear to be the case. Maybe what's happening on my machine is just a fluke, but I've seen it happen, twice.

 

Maybe others with multiple screens know the 'trick'.

As for Ctrl-Esc, the WinKey wasn't always on keyboards. Ctrl-Esc was the standard shortcut for 'Start' before the WinKey was added.

 

I run a triple monitor setup. First off, Tablet mode is disabled if you have more than one monitor in use. =( I have to switch to a single display to use it.
You can open the start menu on any monitor you want be clicking the Start Icon on the taskbar "on that monitor". Using the short cut keys will always open it on the monitor set as Main Monitor. So, if you want it to always open on a particular monitor, by default, set that monitor as the main monitor. Be aware that, that has other side effect though. Depending on how you have your taskbar setup. I only show all taskbar icons on my main monitor, and launch from there. The taskbars on my secondary monitors only show Icons on the taskbar for programs open and running on them. Start and Cortana show on all taskbars regardless. Changing your default monitor will also change where your programs and Apps open when you launch them for the first time. It will be on the main monitor. You can move them to another monitor and close them, and Windows will remember to open on that monitor after that.

 

I added a comment to the thumbs up, "reputation" icon, maybe that isn't the place.

Thanks for reminding me that older keyboards didn't have the WinKey.

 

It's a 'generation thing' - some of us were lucky enough to grow up using the legendary IBM keyboard (no WinKey there!) - now being faithfully recreated, apparently...

Brand New Model F Keyboards – The Model M Predecessor: Mechanical Capacitive Buckling Spring Keyboards with NKRO

 

Thanks for this very helpful response.

I do a lot of photo-editing in Lr and Ps and had problems when I move these programs off my monitor unto my Surface Book (SB) screen, everything got really tiny! I found out about the "manifest" option which resolved that issue.

I never use tablet mode but I image that when I decide to all I would have to do is unplug the Docking station, then remove the screen.

But I have never been completely happy with my monitor setup, mostly, I believe, because I never completely understood it.

I seldom use the icons on the SB taskbar because when I do the programs open, as you pointed out, on my monitor. But now I see using the Start Icon on the SB opens it on the SB screen. Cool, I will use that option more in the future.

I have noted that icons on the SB taskbar get underlined when open on the monitor and that they turn into dots (or just get so small they appear to be dots).

I think I need to learn more about the "taskbar setup" options because I had no idea I could do some of the things you mentioned.

As for "remembering", my system does not do that. When I wake my SB all the programs that were open on the SB screen are on my monitor and I have to drag them back to the SB screen, it's annoying! Also, my Desktop Icons, that are on my monitor, are often pushed into a bunch on that monitor or on the SB screen. I regularly have to run the "restore desktop" option, also very annoying.

Of course, the mystery remains (-: Why did my Start screen open on the SB when I hit some random keys. But the answer to that question is moot at this point. I've learned some things by posting the question, now I want to figure out how to set up my monitor system so it behaves the way I expect it to!