Dual monitors crap on Windows 10

[d5aqoëp]

I have 1 monitor connected using Display Port 1.2 and another 4K TV connected using HDMI 2.0. My Graphics card is Nvidia GTX 1070. I have latest Nvidia drivers installed as of today.

 

But since last 5-6 years I am using this dual monitor setup, the pain to use is getting unbearable.

 

Example,

I have both the screens on but I am working on monitor only. So I decide to turn the HDMI TV off. Now all the active windows on my monitor will disappear and would appear on the TV which is turned off. There is no way to get them back to my monitor again. Since the TV is off, I have to move the mouse to the TV screen and guess where the open window is and pray that I click and drag it's titlebar back to my monitor screen. This doesn't work always. But if I turn the TV back on, all the windows return to their original place on my monitor again.

 

On macOS, there is an option to "Gather Windows" to a particular screen of your choice. But for Microsoft, Cortana learning to give smartarse answers is far more important than fixing this dual monitor problem. This behavior hasn't been fixed since Windows Vista days.

I don't think it's Nvidia problem because I had AMD graphics card and I had observed the same behavior there too.

 

Has anyone faced this issue on dual or multi monitor setup?

[adrynalyne]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/bring-misplaced-off-screen-windows-back-to-your-desktop-keyboard-trick/amp/

 

Cascade windows is your friend. 

[d5aqoëp]

Nope. Tried and Cascade windows does not bring lost windows back to main screen.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Interesting...

 

I am working with my workstation right now and tried to experiment...

Win 10 pro

DVI monitor and HDMI TV via a display port adapter. (Quadro card)

 

On my monitor, browser windows from both displays show on the monitor taskbar.

 

I shut the TV down and turned it back on, still usable...

 

Tried cascade via taskbar, but the cascade happened to several tabs of the monitor browser...no effect on the TV.

 

After turning TV back on, am able to grab the window and move it back.

 

[adrynalyne]

22 minutes ago, d5aqoëp said:

Nope. Tried and Cascade windows does not bring lost windows back to main screen.

Hmm, well unplugging the hdmi should definitely do it. The TV is still detected even when powered off. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I may have misunderstood the problem....

 

All my windows are intact and don't move, regardless of data on TV, on or off.

 

My taskbar still tells me what is being fed to a TV which is turned off...I am able to terminate the window...but to grab it, I must turn the TV on and then grab it...monitor data is not effected.

 

I think I may be a bit tired, and not much help.....

 

Late edit....are you using Windows "settings" for monitor control...or NVidia control panel....may have different outcome?

[d5aqoëp]

I am not changing any Nvidia or Windows settings. Even if the HDMI TV is off, it still gets detected in Windows as well as in Nvidia control panel. Windows will also routinely switch my audio output to Display port even after setting it explicitly to HDMI. I even went to audio properties and disabled Display port audio output. But windows enables it at random after few days and makes it default. I don't know a specific scenario which triggers this audio output change. When this happens, my windows get swapped from one screen to another.

[adrynalyne]

35 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

Hmm, well unplugging the hdmi should definitely do it. The TV is still detected even when powered off. 

See above. 

[d5aqoëp]

My PC cabinet is inside a ventilated wooden cabinet. So me reaching out behind the back to unplug HDMI cable everytime is impractical.

[DaveLegg Developer]

Alt-tab to the window, windows key + shift + left/right will move the window to the next monitor to the left/right - Skips the guessing where the titlebar is.

 

Or go into display properties and turn the second monitor off, that will force all windows to move back to the active monitor. You could use the windows key + P menu to turn the monitor on/off as a shortcut

[Steven P. Administrators]

I have had this issue with a standard dual qHD dual monitor setup. If you're using the display port and then you turn off that monitor or TV, the actual port is getting disabled making the card think you only have one monitor connected, that's why all the desktop content is moved to the one screen. I ended up using the mini-dvi and hdmi ports where this does not happen. 

 

This with a 1050Ti GTX.

[d5aqoëp]

1 hour ago, DaveLegg said:

Alt-tab to the window, windows key + shift + left/right will move the window to the next monitor to the left/right - Skips the guessing where the titlebar is.

 

Or go into display properties and turn the second monitor off, that will force all windows to move back to the active monitor. You could use the windows key + P menu to turn the monitor on/off as a shortcut

Thanks. This solution works even though it's non-intuitive.

Microsoft could potentially make the solution even simpler by right clicking on icon on taksbar and allowing the window to display on screen 1 or screen 2.

[DKAngel]

i dont have this problem using dual dvi i turn the monitor off and my windows come back onto this screen

[d5aqoëp]

3 hours ago, Steven P. said:

I have had this issue with a standard dual qHD dual monitor setup. If you're using the display port and then you turn off that monitor or TV, the actual port is getting disabled making the card think you only have one monitor connected, that's why all the desktop content is moved to the one screen. I ended up using the mini-dvi and hdmi ports where this does not happen. 

 

This with a 1050Ti GTX.

The desktop content gets moved to the screen which I turned off. That is a ridiculous bug which Microsoft has not bothered to check since Vista days.

[DKAngel]

4 minutes ago, d5aqoëp said:

The desktop content gets moved to the screen which I turned off. That is a ridiculous bug which Microsoft has not bothered to check since Vista days.

so set he screens the other way round?

[Daedroth]

I have come across a similar issue since Windows Vista and later operating systems, specifically with using dual screens and only having one of them on. In our case (a school), our machines have two on-board video out ports, Display Port and VGA.  Our issue was that if the projector was connected to the Display Port and the monitor to VGA, then when you use Win+P to switch to 'PC Screen only', it would display out of the projector only (which may be off) instead of the monitor. Regardless of whether 'make this the primary display was selected', 'PC Screen Only' would always come out of the projector.

 

The reason for this is that the actual video out ports have hardware IDs, and it is those hardware IDs what Win+P uses when you select an option. So for example, the Display Port has a hardware ID of 1 and the VGA has a hardware ID of 2. When using Win+P and selecting 'PC Screen Only', the signal would be sent down hardware ID 1 and what ever is connected to it, which in my case is the Display Port with the projector connected to it.

 

From what I can tell, there is no way to change the hardware IDs, so swapping the cables round was the easiest solution. Ensuring that the monitor is connected to the Display Port and the projector to the VGA. That solved it for me and the ~70 classrooms I had to change this in.

[Anibal P]

I have 2 screens and occasionally a work laptop, using DP, HDMI and DVI,  never have had this so called "bug" that tells me it's something in your settings causing the problem and not windows