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

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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
    2014-08-22T16:29:28+00:00

    Please Microsoft, fix this issue, it's super annoying if you have to rearrange your windows all the time.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-08-22T18:05:00+00:00

    On Fri, 22 Aug 2014 16:29:28 +0000, BenjaminKobjolke wrote:

    Please Microsoft, fix this issue, it's super annoying if you have to rearrange your windows all the time.

    This isn't Microsoft you're addressing here; this is a peer support
    forum. We are all just users of this version of Windows here, helping
    each other if and when we can. We are not Microsoft employees (not
    even those of us with "Microsoft MVP" behind our names; that's an
    honorary title for having provided consistently helpful advice) except
    for an occasional Microsoft contractor or employee.

    If you want to complain to Microsoft about something, please contact
    them directly. Trying to do it here is just a waste of (figurative)
    breath, and clutters up the forum.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-03-01T12:47:41+00:00

    I've been trying a lot of software and hardware to solve this issue. I talked with Microsoft and Apple support (I have a Mac Air with Windows) and nobody could solve this problem! Until you came up!

    You are a geniuos! This simple software works excellent!!!!

    Baokeyai, Thank you very much!

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-04-02T20:40:19+00:00

    I also had this issue on my extended display with Windows 7

    I tried every setting you can think of and nothing worked.

    Finally I got this device and it works like a charm.

    http://www.monitordetectkiller.com

    No more surprises when I turn off/on my displays.

    I guess they designed it like that so that if you turn off one of your monitors all the windows can be centralized on the display that's "active".

    I bought 2 of these (2 monitors; one is HDMI and other is HDMI-connected-to-DVI. The monitor detect killer worked great for the HDMI monitor. The DVI monitor, however, still caused the problem even with the monitor detect killer in the circuit. So much for that.

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