Windows 7 Dual Monitors - Turning off a monitor causes desktop to rearrange resulting in significant amounts of lost productivity.

Anonymous
2010-02-03T17:25:23+00:00

I have 2 monitors connected to a nVidia FX 580 card running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. One monitor is connected via DVI and the other via DP (Display Port).

If I turn off the DP monitor, I hear the windows sound indicating hardware was "removed". When I turn the monitor back on, I hear the new hardware sound, windows re-detects the monitor as if I just installed it, and my entire desktop icon layout and any windows I had open are then all rearranged and takes a significant amount of time re-organizing to get back to where I was.

I leave my PC on 24hrs a day for several reasons - and for years have always just turned my monitors off when not in use.

I need to be able to turn off my monitors without windows deciding that I have "removed" a monitor.

I work for a medical imaging software company where we provide complete hardware and software solutions for use in Radiology departments in hospitals. These systems typically have 3 or 4 monitors connected, all via DP these days. Because of the possibility of the users desktop getting messed up if they happen to turn off a monitor, we are unable to install systems with Windows 7.

While many may see this as nothing more then a inconvenience, this is a show-stopper as far as we are concerned. As of yet I have not found a workable solution to this issue.

So here's the question: How do we disable this new behavior in Windows 7 and allow it to understand that the monitor hasn't gone away and that the desktop should not be rearranged simply because the monitor was turned off?

Thank you.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2015-02-28T12:44:10+00:00

I've written a little utility to address this issue. It's still very thrown together, but opensource, so you can compile from sources if you've got any security concerns.

Hope it works out for you!

http://www.ninjacrab.com/persistent-windows/

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-09-27T13:13:42+00:00

    The idiotic "answers" by MS Support:

    You were told repeatedly to stop advising people to update Drivers or whatever.  The problem is a documented moronic feature of Windows7, having zilch todo with drivers !!!  hOW MANY TIMES DO YOU NEED TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE DEAF & BLIND, MS SUPPORT GUY?

    There's a "feature" or should we say problem, whereby Windows7 detects any monitor connected via modern digital ports (DP, HDMI, TB) beign turned off, and forces moving entire desktop to monitor still being on, in multimonitor environment - which happens to be prevalent in our industry (Engineering e.g. CAD/Design), Graphics design, Medical, and MANY home users also, these days.

    Use brains when reading bug reports, dear MS idiot.

    Fix the bug and quit blaming nVidia, AMD (ATI), Intel HD, or "drivers".  I hold MSEE degree, near-complete PhD and you tell me I forgot to update da** drivers?

    Read this line again, Microsoft idiot:

    This is a feature (by design) whereby PnP monitor connected via DP/HDMI/TB to Windows7 is being polled for powerOn/Off state, it may or may not use DDC signal by the way, we can't tell.  YOU should know better than us, customers !!

    I tried to disable DDC in my high-end IPS $1000+ monitor, but no effect.  I seroed Registry Keys used in nVidia or ATI monitor status polling - no effect.

    The stupid feature of WIndows7 which moves desktop to another display, when one is turned off in multimonitor setup - is more than retarded, it is actaully a showstopper for professional folks.

    I am tired of rearrangign desktop everytime one of the monitors is turned off, so tired I don't care to run spell check in this post.

    I am angry.  It seems WIndowsXP developed by Microsoft in Israel, was the best OS in history, now that it aged, there's no equally well-designed equivalent.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-07-08T12:24:09+00:00

    I have a MacBook Air 2013 with a secondary monitor installed through a mini-display port-HDMI cable. I also have bootcamp installed in Windows 8.1 64 bits with all the latest drivers installed. The problem that I have is that when the computer wakes after it goes to sleep, all the windows in the non-primary monitor moves to the primary monitor and I have to re-arranged them all over every time.

    What I tried so far:

    1. Installed the latests drivers from Microsoft and Intel HD Graphics 5000.
    2. Look for the DMMEnableDDCPolling in the registry. (not found only available for ATI cards)
    3. Change the mini-displayport-HDMI cable for a new one that doesn't transmit the "power" so that computer do not detect that the monitor was shutdown.
    4. Change the resolution on boths monitors to native resolution
    5. Change the primary display from external monitor to laptop monitor
    6. Changer HKLM\Software\Microsoft\TMM\UseIViewHelper from 1 to 0
    7. Try to get an answer from Apple, Intel and microsoft support.

    Similar threads where I found this info:

    Link 1

    Link 2

    Link 3

    PLEASE HELP! I Don't know what else to do!

    This do not happend on MacOS, is happends only in Windows.

    Thanks, Andres Rormoser.

    MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), Windows 8

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-01-15T16:40:33+00:00

    This has been a huge problem for me in windows 7 as well.  I have a television that is used as a monitor only sometimes, and every time someone turns it on, windows stops everything and detects it as a monitor and enables it.  Windows then start to open on the new screen, and of course I can't see them because it is being used by someone else as a TV, not a monitor.

    The response above from the microsoft representative is way off the mark.  Why can't they understand this problem?  It's not bad drivers, that is for sure.  Turning off PNP, even if it works, will prevent windows from detecting other hardware changes that should be acknowledged.  This is a valid bug of windows 7 that should be acknowledged and addressed.  Just because a monitor is turned off, does not mean you want that desktop configuration to change.  This should be an OPTION in the screen resolution settings to allow a particular configuration to PERSIST, until you specifically change it.

    I have been looking at third party options like ultramon to see if they can control things better than the windows 7 OS does.  Ultramon has an option to ignore enabled monitors, and you can setup multiple hardware configurations.   This may be the only answer until MS figures out that they really have screwed up in this case.

    Why can't someone at MS figure this one out?  There must be millions of users who are being annoyed by this trait of windows 7.

    BTW, I am having a similar problem with audio.  when the tv turns on, the default audio stream switches to the HDMI port, and now I lose all my sounds as well.

    Somebody fix this please!

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-07-15T16:04:39+00:00

    I am also experiencing this issue with dual HP LA2405x monitors, one on an Intel HD integrated graphics DisplayPort, and the other on an nVidia GeForce 210 DVI port.  I am running Windows 7 x64 SP1 with the latest drivers for both video cards.  The symptom is that if I shut the primary monitor off (DisplayPort), when I turn it back on the icons are all rearranged.

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