Windows 10: Taskbar keeps moving back to primary monitor

Pretty much as the title says. My task bar is locked and located on the right-hand side of my second monitor. Occasionally I'll go for it and realize that it is now located on the right-hand side of my primary monitor. Most recently this happened after bringing my computer back from screensaver.

One of my friends also experiences this problem.

Is there a known solution or workaround?

:)

 

Is there a way to force notifications to present on a 2nd (or 3rd) monitor?

You are correct - notifications are always shown on the primary monitor (just like I said above). I never claimed that the primary taskbar had anything to do with that, I was just pointing out that if moving the primary monitor caused an inconvenience due
to the taskbar, that you could independently move the taskbar without regard to the primary monitor.

I was not aware of any game that only defaults to the primary monitor, none of my Steam games do that. I've already configured mine as discussed above.

 

Primary taskbar has changed and can't move it back

Hi,

This can happen if the primary display has been the SP3. First, you need to change the primary monitor display to Dell so that the taskbar can be moved. Go to the display settings and set the primary monitor display. After doing so, go to Settings again,
then Taskbar. On the Taskbar settings, under Multiple displays, click the drop-down arrow of
Show taskbar buttons on then select Main taskbar and taskbar where window is open option and see if the taskbar was moved to the primary monitor.

Give us an update on how it goes.

 

Hello TomatoSoup Welcome to the Ten Forums!

From the experience I have with a dual monitor setup I have to uncheck the smart bar option in UltraMON to use 10's extended task bar setting and then limit what you see on the second display's task bar portion there while the main stays on the primary display. I have to keep things that way in order to avoid simply ending up with the mirrored display instead. 10 works primarily from the primary where you may need to set the second to that.

Possible workaround? A 3rd party app called RocketDock is a portable form of task bar you can have set for bottom, top, or either side of the display including the option for auto hide. Most while not every desktop shortcut can be added by simply dragging the shorcut onto that bar inbetween the existing shortcuts it comes with for Explorer, Control Panel, Documents, Recycle Bin.





As a gag screenshot I kept adding anything and everything to the RocketDock bar as well as editing captures of the multiple Quick Launch type addon tool bars you can create plus numerous oversized desktop icons to show a hectic day on a dual display set up! *What*Roflmao2

As you see there the RocketDock simply keeps expanding from the secondary display where is was set for the default across onto the primary when I kept adding things on and on and on! You won't actually need the 10 smart bar extension or try to keep fighting with 10 to keep the task bar over on the secondary since it will continue to automatically default to the primary anyways. The 3rd party app will remain where you have it set for.

With the RocketDock app you also have numerous themes including transparency you can see it set for to help blend in with the present 10 theme you have. The latest 1.3.5 version works on the 64bit 10 as well as on the 64bit 7 so you can simply disregard the system requirements that still need to be updated on the main site there! *Rolleyes Originally it was developed for Vista x86 and the author never bothered updating that information while it keeps working the same as always.

 

That's interesting. Can you elaborate on UltraMON? The way you wrote your instructions seems to me that you think UltraMON is interfering with my taskbar, although a quick search seems to tell me that UltraMON is third-party software for desktop management, which I don't have installed. I don't have anything installed that would interfere with the taskbar, to the best of my knowledge.

I've previously tried using RocketDock and was not happy with it, so I'd prefer not to rely on it.

 

I was simply saying I use UltraMON here for the dual display set up but had to disable the smart bar option in that due to what 10 brought in with it. UltraMON allows you to set a new wallpaper for each monitor separately as opposed to to see the same background cloned on each constantly without options for customizing things a bit. That plus extending the desktop is something the previous versions lacked options for. 10 has brought in dual monitor support with it.

For your situation there however the onboard graphics used for the 3rd monitor is the problem as far as seeing the primary setting being bumped around. As long as you continue to use a 3rd monitor and keep the onboard enabled that will interfere with the primary dual display set up you have. Adding the second card in and finding a display setting tweaker for having a 3rd display not simply mirroring the primary or secondary would have to be found.

I may be looking some time to connect a 3rd here by way of HDMI and may end up having to replace the present app on. I would still need to add a second card in however and due to the age of the present video card simply end up buying two of the same new cards. But I also have the option for connecting a second remotely controlled pc where you can view but not control things on the main system with another type of program in use for display and even possible recording things.

 

I don't have onboard graphics nor a third monitor, though.

 

I may have been thinking about another thread. But your initial explanation makes it sound like the task bar was set over on the secondary monitor which seems a bit impossible to see that on the secondary while not being on the primary at all.

The check box for showing the task bar on the secondary also includes the primary since that options is "Show taskbar on all displays" as what that says. If the settings found in the taskbar properties were somehow changed back to the defaults that would explain why you are only seeing the taskbar on the primary display.

As for UltraMON that is another program similar to DisplayFusion only while having bought and paid for both I have only been using UltraMON all this time since the first dual display set up for 7 while still in beta form. Before 10 arrived and likely before 8, 8.1 as well while 10 now features the dual display options in Windows you would have had to have a 3rd party program like one of those two in order to see the desktop extended across multiple displays not simply cloned from the primary to secondary.

 

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Please look at these pictures. I'm afraid I may have used some wrong terminology to describe my problem because what you're telling me, from my point of view, cannot be correct. I have used an extended desktop across two monitors, with the taskbar only on the secondary monitor, as far back as the XP days. Again, I may be describing something else but the pictures show my setup. Back in the XP days it was a 1280x1024 as my primary and a 1024x768 as my secondary, but the setup was essentially the same.

 

That's a good one! Since I have the extension enabled this is what I end up when setting it for the right side still seeing the main bar on the primary display however.





You will notice there are two backgrounds courtesy of the UltraMON utility program. On the left side of the secondary I enabled a side bar type gadget while you still see how the main task bar itself remains on the primary. With the task bar unlocked you can drag it around the screen but anything can end up seeing it reset to the default position back on the primary when some program for example won't open on the secondary.





Here I have the task bar and extension set for the right side but reversed as far as which display they are on.





And this one has the task bar returned to the top but in reverse order with the extension





And this is where you have yours excluding the gadget. When using the UltraMON option to enable the secondary smartbar that had an interesting result.





There's the right click on the icon hidden in the system tray.





But this time however the extension remains on top due it being a 3rd party app until the position setting is changed. And now there's one other thing to include with all this. Namely what happens when changing the task bar settings while the popup for system tray icons is still open! I now have to sign out or restart to get that to close up!





At first that remained open where you saw it in the other screen for the UltraMON settings until the task bar was back on the primary and I clicked on the arrrow to see it appear where it is there. That only goes to show that the task bar and items within simply find their way back to the primary automatically in time.