DisplayPort: bastard lovechild of VESA? Or just misunderstood by Microsoft, me?

[Steven P. Administrators]

What a load of rubbish at people claiming dual DP monitors do not reset application windows to the primary monitor (as if there is only one connected) when you unlock the Windows from ctrl + alt + del > lock. There are hundreds of complaints about this behavior on Microsoft and Nvidia's support forums with each passing the buck or giving some lame reinstall Windows 10 advice.

 

I just came back from being out, unlocked my PC and was greeted with all app windows shifted to the primary monitor and the secondary was completely empty desktop. I had forgotten to manually start Persistent Windows app this morning, which prevents that behavior, and as a result of that there is a fix that Microsoft and Nvidia are too lazy to implement properly.

[adrynalyne]

1 hour ago, Steven P. said:

What a load of rubbish at people claiming dual DP monitors do not reset application windows to the primary monitor (as if there is only one connected) when you unlock the Windows from ctrl + alt + del > lock. There are hundreds of complaints about this behavior on Microsoft and Nvidia's support forums with each passing the buck or giving some lame reinstall Windows 10 advice.

 

I just came back from being out, unlocked my PC and was greeted with all app windows shifted to the primary monitor and the secondary was completely empty desktop. I had forgotten to manually start Persistent Windows app this morning, which prevents that behavior, and as a result of that there is a fix that Microsoft and Nvidia are too lazy to implement properly.

Hundreds of complaints on forums clearly makes it a fact and people claiming not having the issue liars. 🙄
 

You totally got us all figured out!

Edited October 17, 2019 by adrynalyne

[Elliot B.]

1 hour ago, Steven P. said:

What a load of rubbish at people claiming dual DP monitors do not reset application windows to the primary monitor (as if there is only one connected) when you unlock the Windows from ctrl + alt + del > lock. There are hundreds of complaints about this behavior on Microsoft and Nvidia's support forums with each passing the buck or giving some lame reinstall Windows 10 advice.

 

I just came back from being out, unlocked my PC and was greeted with all app windows shifted to the primary monitor and the secondary was completely empty desktop. I had forgotten to manually start Persistent Windows app this morning, which prevents that behavior, and as a result of that there is a fix that Microsoft and Nvidia are too lazy to implement properly.

I completely agree and it's a very frustrating issue.

I'll try the Persistent Windows program you've mentioned 

[Steven P. Administrators]

4 hours ago, Elliot B. said:

I completely agree and it's a very frustrating issue.

I'll try the Persistent Windows program you've mentioned 

If you find a way for it to start as Administrator with Windows please let me know 😛

[Brandon H Supervisor]

On 10/17/2019 at 1:18 PM, Steven P. said:

If you find a way for it to start as Administrator with Windows please let me know 😛

starting with windows is easy enough but starting automatically with admin privileges is another story

 

doing a slight google search I came across PSTools that may be able to do what you need

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec

 

the -h flag is supposed to elevate your command so the following would be your batch file:

psexec -h "path to file"

 

this is the page I found that recommended this: https://superuser.com/questions/735457/elevate-cmd-to-admin-with-command-prompt

 

edit: here's one that recommends a more native solution using powershell as well https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19098101/how-to-open-an-elevated-cmd-using-command-line-for-windows

[sc302 Veteran]

7 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

starting with windows is easy enough but starting automatically with admin privileges is another story

 

doing a slight google search I came across PSTools that may be able to do what you need

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec

 

the -h flag is supposed to elevate your command so the following would be your batch file:

psexec -h "path to file"

 

this is the page I found that recommended this: https://superuser.com/questions/735457/elevate-cmd-to-admin-with-command-prompt

 

edit: here's one that recommends a more native solution using powershell as well https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19098101/how-to-open-an-elevated-cmd-using-command-line-for-windows

or start as a scheduled task when windows starts.  it can start as an admin.  

 

 

[Brandon H Supervisor]

22 minutes ago, sc302 said:

or start as a scheduled task when windows starts.  it can start as an admin.  

 

 

good to know; didn't know you could make scheduled tasks start as admin 

[neufuse Veteran]

Since you are using two different brands of monitors, maybe there is a flaw between how both of them handle display signaling? I have 4 Dell U2518's and no issues at all with this.. I just had to make sure 3 monitors had signaling enabled and one didn't so it was the termination point.. never seen this issue myself personally and I have a ton of windows open across the screens

[adrynalyne]

17 minutes ago, neufuse said:

Since you are using two different brands of monitors, maybe there is a flaw between how both of them handle display signaling? I have 4 Dell U2518's and no issues at all with this.. I just had to make sure 3 monitors had signaling enabled and one didn't so it was the termination point.. never seen this issue myself personally and I have a ton of windows open across the screens

Be careful, that sounds a lot like rubbish. 😉

[sc302 Veteran]

49 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

good to know; didn't know you could make scheduled tasks start as admin 

it is run with highest privileges, but yes it is there.

[Steven P. Administrators]

@Brandon H @sc302 Thanks guys, I made a scheduled task

46 minutes ago, neufuse said:

Since you are using two different brands of monitors, maybe there is a flaw between how both of them handle display signaling? I have 4 Dell U2518's and no issues at all with this.. I just had to make sure 3 monitors had signaling enabled and one didn't so it was the termination point.. never seen this issue myself personally and I have a ton of windows open across the screens

That doesn't really fly because previously I had two Philips 272SL screens and I had the same exact problem, the Dell GSync replaced one of them. They are also both 1440p screens.

 

Recently though since I sent the Gigabyte 2070 RTX Super back for a refund (got the refund in my bank already) and I put the (Dell) Nvidia 1060 GTX back in, the backlight of my secondary (Philips) screen has been turning off properly when I lock my PC, so it might be card specific as well.

[neufuse Veteran]

55 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

@Brandon H @sc302 Thanks guys, I made a scheduled task

That doesn't really fly because previously I had two Philips 272SL screens and I had the same exact problem, the Dell GSync replaced one of them. They are also both 1440p screens.

 

Recently though since I sent the Gigabyte 2070 RTX Super back for a refund (got the refund in my bank already) and I put the (Dell) Nvidia 1060 GTX back in, the backlight of my secondary (Philips) screen has been turning off properly when I lock my PC, so it might be card specific as well.

yeah that sounds more like a card issue, maybe the card's firmware didn't implement the spec correctly

[binaryzero]

Can't say I have this problem, and I have 3 DisplayPort monitors connected lol. Remembers positioning every time... 

[adrynalyne]

5 minutes ago, Jared- said:

Can't say I have this problem, and I have 3 DisplayPort monitors connected lol. Remembers positioning every time... 

what a bunch of rubbish. Ok I’m done. 🤪

[Elliot B.]

8 hours ago, Jared- said:

Can't say I have this problem, and I have 3 DisplayPort monitors connected lol. Remembers positioning every time... 

That doesn't mean it's not an issue with the DisplayPort specification. If variance is possible, that would be an example of an issue with the specification.

[adrynalyne]

46 minutes ago, Elliot B. said:

That doesn't mean it's not an issue with the DisplayPort specification. If variance is possible, that would be an example of an issue with the specification.

K. 

[Elliot B.]

On 10/17/2019 at 3:12 PM, Elliot B. said:

I completely agree and it's a very frustrating issue.

I'll try the Persistent Windows program you've mentioned 

I've made it start on startup but it isn't saving any positions for me

[Steven P. Administrators]

3 hours ago, Elliot B. said:

I've made it start on startup but it isn't saving any positions for me

The purpose of the program is to restore positions if the screen resolution changes or the screen disconnects briefly during a Windows session (such as installing a new Nvidia driver or if a game causes the screen to turn off or change resolution). I haven't found a window manager that permanently saves positions from previous sessions and preference. Even WindowsLayoutSnapshot.exe does not save previous Windows layout sessions, just the ones from the moment the program is started (which can also be helpful).

 

In most situations, turning off my computer at night and then booting up will restore window positions on the secondary monitor, but behaviors such as driver updates resets it all to the primary screen, PersistentWindows.exe is supposed to prevent this from happening.

[MS Bob 11]

But WindowsLayoutSnapshot is so awesome even though it doesn't work for multiple monitors! Sadly no app that I know of to save persistent window positions across reboots and on multiple displays.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Spoke too soon I guess:

 

 

On Sunday night I locked my PC because I wanted to use Plex and the backlight of the second monitor stayed on.

• The PC was not shutdown until Monday night (booted on Friday morning and stayed on)
• On Friday and Saturday night the backlight did not stay on
• No updates were installed or programs changed between Friday and Monday

So again, it is poor coding/software, not the hardware! But @adrynalyne will probably say that's a load of rubbish  

[MS Bob 11]

Oh btw in my DisplayPort to DVI+3.5mm audio setup, I use NirSoft's MultiMonitorTool to turn on/off the non-primary monitor.

 

MultiMonitorTool.exe /SwitchOffOn \\.\DISPLAY2

 

Added it as a command to my Start menu. Just thought I'd mention as Nirsoft has way too many tools and the functionality of some of them is lesser known.

[Steven P. Administrators]

25 minutes ago, Microsoft BOB™ 10 said:

Oh btw in my DisplayPort to DVI+3.5mm audio setup, I use NirSoft's MultiMonitorTool to turn on/off the non-primary monitor.

 

MultiMonitorTool.exe /SwitchOffOn \\.\DISPLAY2

 

Added it as a command to my Start menu. Just thought I'd mention as Nirsoft has way too many tools and the functionality of some of them is lesser known.

That's nice but I just want the screen to enter power saving properly when I lock my PC, is that too much to ask for 😛 I spent a lot of money on my setup and it feels frakensteined with the way the OS sometimes works and sometimes doesn't work.

[MS Bob 11]

Oh but it does enter power saving properly when I sleep the PC. But I don't have a monitor with DisplayPort IN. Only DVI+VGA+HDMI inputs so maybe that's why it gives me no issues.

I agree DisplayPort to DisplayPort should ideally work like that but it doesn't unfortunately.

[adrynalyne]

5 hours ago, Steven P. said:

Spoke too soon I guess:

 

 

On Sunday night I locked my PC because I wanted to use Plex and the backlight of the second monitor stayed on.

• The PC was not shutdown until Monday night (booted on Friday morning and stayed on)
• On Friday and Saturday night the backlight did not stay on
• No updates were installed or programs changed between Friday and Monday

So again, it is poor coding/software, not the hardware! But @adrynalyne will probably say that's a load of rubbish  

Im not calling anyone liars because they don’t have the issues you do. 🙃

 

Also, I never said it wasn’t a hardware, nor software issue. I said it wasn’t happening to me, and I also questioned it being a flaw in the standard. 
 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

1 minute ago, adrynalyne said:

Im not calling anyone liars because they don’t have the issues you do. 🙃

 

Also, I never said it wasn’t a hardware, nor software issue. I said it wasn’t happening to me, and I also questioned it being a flaw in the standard. 
 

 

Chill dude 😛