How to Swap Display Identity (Identities)

I don't get why Microsoft doesn't understand this issue.  Every user who has more than one monitor gets the problem.

I have three monitors and they do not map the identity numbers correctly.

Yes, you can move the monitors around in the display control panel to set up the physical locations, but that's not the issue.

The real issue is the identity numbers.  So, application will only run on monitor 1 (or monitor 2 if more than one is present) and you can not move the app to another monitor.  Also, a bigger annoyance is that Windows does a **** poor job of tracking desktop icon positions when there are multiple monitors involved;

For example, I have three monitors, however I do not use all three all the time.  I would prefer my center monitor to be number 1 since that is what I consider my primary and is used all the time.  My left side monitor is primarily for movies so that usually only gets used if a movie is running.  The right side monitor is when I need more desktop space and if I am running a program that has tons of windows or palettes (e.g. AutoCAD).

Now, if you turn off a monitor, sometimes windows will move all my desktop icons to another monitor, or it will just move them around randomly to new positions.  Sometimes it will move some to one monitor (whether it is on or not) and leave some on the center monitor and move the rest to the third monitor).

Anyway, Windows really can't seem to figure out to just leave the damned icons where they are regardless of what monitors are on or off.  There really should be a setting in the Display control panel so users can tell windows to Dynamically adjust desktop icon positions or Leave them in place (Static locations).

There also needs to be a setting in the Display control panel to allow the user to manually set the monitor identities (at the OS level) and leave them set even if the monitors are turned off (except maybe the number 1 monitor as that is required for minimal display purposes).

But, this is a major ANNOYANCE in windows and Windows does not handle multiple monitors correctly in my opinion.  As it stands, Windows half-assedly handles multiple monitors as not a lot of thought has gone into giving the user much control over how multiple monitors is handled.

Microsoft needs to get serious about correctly handling multi-monitor display and giving users control over settings for those setups.

Thank you.

now its 2015 and

"The Identity numbers DOES matter." !!!!!!!!!!!!!

amd hd 5450

hdmi is always number 1

vga is always number 2

vga is set as primary (75hz)

hdmi is set as secondary (50hz)

i want to play a game on "VGA" with enabled vsync and now guess to which refresh rate it syncs ?

it syncs to 50fps because it takes the value from display identity 1.

a proof picture which shows that cs 1.6 vsyncs to 50fps instead of 75fps which would be the correct value !!!

http://abload.de/img/monitoridentitybugc8pf5.jpg

So

AMD

and

Microsoft

FIX !!! !!! !!!

since many years i try to upgrade from windows xp to windows 7 but amd driver and microsoft doesnt allow me !!!!!!!

under windows xp all runs 100%

thank you*.*

I figured I'd throw in my experiences with this issue, and I'm wondering if maybe we need to start a support group, because like all of you (minus the 35 people who replied without understanding the problem) I am shaking my head in disbelief over this.

The following is an exact quote from the notes I kept when I reinstalled Windows a couple years ago:  "Nvidia driver 331.82 - 2013.11.19. - Did not use the latest driver because it sets NEC monitor identity to 2 and Samsung t.v. to 1".  I've had the same Nvidia card and Monitor/TV setup for the last three years, and up through driver 320.49 everything was fine.  My desktop monitor was always 1 and my TV was 2.  Then one day I saw that Nvidia released a new driver that increased performance in Far Cry 3, which I was playing at the time, so I gave it a whirl.  Suddenly my monitor is #2 and my TV is #1!  I tried everything I could to fix it.  Finally I removed that latest driver and went back to 320.49.  Presto, everything was good again.  (Sort of off topic but I should add that with my card the bios screen is sent to the top port on the back of the card regardless of what's plugged in.)

I was in the Nvidia forum at the time and found others there with the exact same story as me.  We thought it was just a goof, like Nvidia messed up and the next driver release would get things back on track.  Well, here it is a couple years and 30 driver releases later and it's still broken.  Call me crazy, but it almost seems like, in order to fix a worse problem, Nvidia had to do this gonzo monitor identity switch.  I don't know how else to explain all drivers working fine up until a point and then every driver since then broken.  (I shouldn't say "every" because I didn't test them all, but I did keep installing new drivers every once in a while just to see if the issue was fixed.)  I realize others might have these same headaches but for different reasons, but in my case it really seems like a driver problem.  Or they legitimately and needfully changed something in the driver and now Windows needs a fix for it.  There is one thing we can all agree on:  No one is doing anything to address the problem. It seems like it should be about a 5 minute fix for a software engineer, like something he or she could do blindfolded, with arms tied, and on one leg while hopping up and down and repeating, "The way it's meant to be played!!" over and over.  That's why I find it so frustrating.  Thanks for listening!  I needed to get it off my chest!

You know what, I'm going to install that old driver right now to make sure I didn't imagine it all.......if you have an Nvidia card and you're curious, try driver 320.49 and see what happens.  My experience is documented below in screenshots.

Driver 320.49 (or earlier) - Perfect! - NEC monitor 1 and TV 2

Any driver newer than 320.49 - not so good(I have 353.62 installed right now.)

Aye, Display Port and HDMI handshakes are a nuisance.

Last year I had to buy one of the HDMI detector from GenFen because I used my AMD GPU as sound card with audio passing through HDMI to my monitor. but whenever my monitor went to sleep/turned off, all my programs, including flash player, will have no sound because Windows think the sound card is no longer availble.