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

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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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68 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-03-15T19:46:48+00:00

corb06, unchecking "Allow themes to change desktop icons" did work for me. I've been using three different dual monitor setups with my laptop and it solved the the problem for two (I have not used the third since then). BTW, I recently bought a new laptop and found that the bug affects Windows 8 as well, only that it's worse: desktop icons simply disappear if my secondary monitor is not turned on. I've unchecked the box and will report whether it's ok or not.

Edit: automatic alignment brought my icons back, did my own alignment and now they stay put, so unchecking the above option does work for me under Windows 7 and 8 as well.

Edit2: it turned out that success with Windows 8 was just a coincidence, my icons still disappear when my computer is turned on without the secondary screen.

Edit3: Apparently, Windows 8 thinks that the secondary display is the primary one when turning on the computer, even though the settings are the other way round: built-in screen is primary. If attach my secondary display before entering Desktop mode in Windows 8 my icons are rearranged, if I power on the computer without the secondary display turned on when I powered it off with the secondary screen attached then they disappear from the primary screen (get stuck on the other one). Rearranging has got to do with the different resolutions of the screens but at the moment I do not have access to a secondary display with the same native resolution as the primary one. To confirm, I may try using my secondary with the same resolution but I hate staring at LCD displays driven at other resoulutions than native.

Sorry for the edits, I do not want to flood the thread.
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Anonymous

2013-01-26T15:46:38+00:00

Hello! I am running a 3-screen setup in Eyefinity with a ASUS HD7970 graphics card with the latest Catalyst 13.1 driver. All 3 monitors are DisplayPort from Samsung.

I dont understand Why I have to rearrange my windows (Chrome, explorer, mailapp, winamp, vlc and so on) every god damn time I turn on the monitors. My PC is on almost 24/7 but I dont want to waste electrical power with the screens, since I am not sitting by the PC all the time.

Its stupidly annoying that when I come home and turn on screens, the Chrome window will be in the size 640x480 in the upper left corner of my left monitor. When I normally have it in the centermonitor full screeen.

PLEASE MICROSOFT! Fix this ASAP!!!
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Anonymous

2013-01-18T21:09:23+00:00

"I have it while using my 15 pin analog RGB connector, just not always... Seems to randomly decide to screw up my desktop arrangement!"

Same here, hopefully until now. I am using a built-in 1366x768 as primary display and various 1280x1024 LCD's as secondary at their native resolution through the analog output of my laptop. The solution (or workaround?) is to uncheck "Allow themes to change desktop icons". Just right click on desktop, click change desktop icons (upper left), a new window pops up, uncheck the box, done. It's working at home, if it's ok in the office then 2 out of 3, which is already a solution for me. It may not work for you, if you DO want your themes to change your icons,

Credit goes to the anonymous poster who posted this at another forum.

Edit: sorry that my answer looks as if it were a quote, first post...

Edit2: problem solved at home, however a visit to the office means a rearranged desktop...
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Anonymous

2012-12-17T23:34:47+00:00

This is a **** answer from microsoft, just leads the reader in circles when there is clearly a problem. Instead of just fixing the problem microsoft is wasting your time installing drivers that don't work. Next computer will be an apple. ps if you change your power setting to keep your monitor always on and leave it on, the problem doesn't occur but its waste of power.
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