In the Screen Resolution window, under Change the appearance of your displays , click and drag one of the monitors to its correct location vs. the other one. The Identity numbers don't matter.
How to Swap Display Identity (Identities)
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Anonymous
Windows 7 - Display 'A' Philips primary display - Display 'B' IBM secondary display. A shows as Identity 2 and B shows as Identity 1. I want to reverse these. Reason is that the cursor currently travels from display B to A and I need it to go the other way - due to physical location of displays
Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility
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.
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
129 additional answers
Sort by: Newest
-
Anonymous
2011-07-22T22:26:54+00:00 I am having the same issue, but my need is much simpler. I just want to be able to watch movies on my TV and still use my laptop, but because Windows 7 assigns identities, my desktop is on my TV which totally defeats the purpose. If someone has a resolution, I would appreciate it. We are hooked up through HDMI from the laptop to the TV.
-
Anonymous
2011-06-16T07:06:01+00:00 Agreed - the monitor identity (number) DOES matter.
Case in point - I use three displays connected via DVI(2) and DP(1).
I can set up the monitors in DVI easily BUT as soon as I connect the DP monitor, the DP monitor ALWAYS takes the identify of #1.
The problem then is that when I deselect 'Extend' and go to 'computer only' via Win+P, the DP is the active monitor because it is #1 monitor (but the DP needs to be of the extended displays) - I can't force the DP to take the identity of monitor #2 or #3; it takes on #1 always.
Some say - well then just set the #2 display as primary, which it does become the primary display BUT it is still is #2 and is extended; turning off the extended displays turns off #2 and all reverts to #1.
So you can see that switching from running only one monitor to running multiple monitors, the numbering identity is very significant. I have no idea why the DP demands to be #1.
Another suggestion would be to make the DP monitor the main monitor - NOT AN OPTION.
There was a registry hack available for XP and Vista to change identities, but this no longer works with Windows 7.
There are programs like Ultramon and Catalyst Control Center that can renumber monitors but they only renumber internally and have no effect upon the monitor identity at the OS level.
With more and more users running multiple monitors, Microsoft needs to address this problem.
-
Anonymous
2011-02-05T13:17:14+00:00 The identity number MATTERS a whole lot.
I am not talking about small annoyance of right click Move to Monitor 1/2/3
Some games which support dual monitor will INSIST on using dsplay number 2 as auxillary.
-
Anonymous
2010-01-19T06:04:49+00:00 Yes the number does not matter as said in this post already.
You get a virtual Desktop in which there are two Monitors
Just move the Monitor in the Virtual Desktop and Mouse cursor would move as you would like it to be