How to Swap Display Identity (Identities)

To make a long story short.

With the TV already powered up, I opened up my PC and disconnected the hard drives, so it cannot boot and then powered it up.

Bios messages go to the TV which is connected via HDMI.

Therefore, it is clear that the default display is video number 1, no matter if it has been defined as secondary display into the O.S. ( which is not active, anyway !!!! )

It definitively means that it is NOT an Operating System problem.

Microsoft therefore cannot fix it.

Which are the Microsoft mistakes into this long discussion ? At least two :

• "identity numbers do not matter " : this is a wrong statement made by somebody of MS.
• not having clearly understood the problem or not dig into it.

For what I'm concerned, it is useless to continue this discussion in a Microsoft forum.

Who is at fault, then ?

I do not know.

Most probably either PC firmware or graphic card  firmware ( my guessing ).

This isn't true.  

The monitor for my system is connected by DVI which, if I'm not mistaken, supersedes the HDMI connection to my TV as far as boot order.  My TV has only ever booted to my desktop with a picture of my dog.  This would be great if it stopped right there but, as you unintentionally pointed-out to me, windows then actively alters the configuration of my hardware without any order or consent from me.  This point is in no way ethically "ok" for any business but it may still be tolerable if it stopped right there.  It doesn't.  Soon the monitor I use for my pc starts to change.  The resolution drops to a 1024 × 768, or maybe worse, and the option to correct this is no longer available through the control panel or even the software for my graphics card. At first I didn't know what was going on.  I thought I was going to have to purchase a new graphics card.  I don't have money to be needlessly throwing around so I did everything I knew how to divorce the TV from the pc as far as physical connections, installed software and registry.  Finally, of course, I had to re-install Windows.

I would love to live in a world in which extending my desktop only involves clicking "charms" but, like people have complained about for years, that would also be the world in which the creators of the OS not only hear their customers and care to offer the best product but also don't actively, and without any consent or suggestion of such, develop it to do the very thing that is the basis of these complaints.  Is it my fault because my monitor is old?  Or is it my fault because the explanation that "those identity numbers don't matter" wouldn't fly with me even if that weren't so clearly not the truth.  I guess it's my fault for not having the money to throw at it so I could purchase the delusion that that is in an acceptable answer to anything.  No, instead I have to constantly and strategically connect and disconnect HDMI cables.  Do I remember something about the interfaces for those cables being extremely sensitive to excessive wear and tear?  Oh, well, that, apparently isn't Microsoft's problem.   Today I had to watch video while writing a paper when I realized that, not only is that second taskbar useless to me but it also takes up viewing space.  I found the setting to get rid of it and I had to hesitate before clicking the command because history has given me no grounds to even guess which of the screens would lose the taskbar or what it would take to remedy.  When I finally did click I did so with the understand that I would probably have to reinstall or "refresh" because Microsoft seems more interested in creating euphemisms than developing solutions.

Tell me that every time my display identity and settings don't reconfigure for no reason God kills a kitten.  Tell me that this is a complicated issue that requires real-time authorization from Putin at every step.  Tell me that I belong to a small minority that Microsoft would spit on but, instead, satisfies itself by ignoring.  All I can see is Windows intentionally reconfiguring my hardware at boot as well as other times, until the point that it isn't usable to specifications.  But, most of all, explain to me how this is ok.

I'm not an expert of PC's internal.

I've been working for all my life on much much larger machines ( aka main frames ) than PC's.

But I've made up my mind on this subject.

Let's start with a TV already powered on and let's power up the PC.

As everybody agrees here in this forum, the BIOS messages go to the TV, regardless PC screen has been defined as primary.

Well.... the point is : when BIOS messages are displayed, no operating system is loaded, yet.

No matter if O.P. is Win 7 or Win 8 or whatever else. And this is the key point.

It looks like the O.S. is not the culprit....at least not at this time.

So, where the PC firmware gets the information to send bios msgs to the display number 1 from ?

Information stored into some sort of non volatile storage of the display card ? Bios default ?

I really do not know.

I do not intend to defend MS for its behavior on this 5+ years old subject ( wrong/misleading statements have been provided by MS in the previous appends ) but I start to suspect that MS cannot solve this problem. The fact that this problem appears with more that one O.S. raises suspects.

Any thought, anyone ?

I have a similar problem with windows 8.1.  When I plug my tv into my pc it usurps the number one spot.  At some point after that the native resolution (reported) of the old plasma monitor with which I'm working mysteriously changes and I'm left looking at duplo blocks with no options of changing this while my tv is connected to my pc.

That is a little problem that I easily work around but I thought I'd come here to see if there is something more of a solution available.  I only made it to the second "the identity numbers don't matter."

Who are you people that say this?  Even without the resolution issues I have, those numbers matter to me because they are wrong.  There is nothing right or acceptable about an issue that misidentifies anything, regardless of how seemingly arbitrary.  If the identity and behavior of something that lives in my system changes when a special guest shows, that is wrong.  

Apparently, in the five+ years since the original post, Microsoft has seen fit to do nothing to remedy the situation.  Just the option to reassign the identities, is that so hard to do?  According to the replies to OP, this company has conditioned its customer base to simply accept a problem if nothing is "on fire."  The problem is the fire!  

Someone within the company has read the original post so, basically, I have to think that for the past 5+ years microsoft has been knowingly and deliberately putting out a product that some users have issue with.  I'm sure that I am probably not the only that has the resolution of their primary monitor changed but even without that, why can't I expect precision from one of the largest tech companies in the world.  Why can't I expect a resolution after 5+ years?  With one minor, inconsequential issue, Microsoft has made it clear that they neither care about the quality of their flagship product or for the concerns of their customers.