How to Swap Display Identity (Identities)

Hi StevenMartin00,

I think there are a few different things going on here. Let me try to recap what I know about this issue from my own experience. (People please correct me if something behaves differently for you than for me.)

• First of all, there is a hardware enumeration ordering to each monitor which is apparently assigned by the graphics hardware depending on what port a monitor is plugged in (you can tell by seeing that e.g., BIOS boot messages appear on the same monitor Windows identifies as monitor "1"). In my experience, the numbers in the "Screen Resolution" control panel applet always seem to represent the hardware ordering.
• Secondly, there is the Windows concept of a "main monitor" (or "primary monitor") as well as that of monitor "position". You can change both of these using the "Screen Resolution" applet coming with Windows. (It appears when choosing "Screen Resolution" from the desktop's context menu.)
• Thirdly, AMD Catalys Control Center has its own way of numbering and ordering monitors. I think this _should_ usually match the display settings and numbering from "Screen Resolution", but I'm not sure it always does. I'm also not sure how or if this plays into the problems explained below.

Now, there are some things Windows can't do anything about, e.g., which screen the BIOS boot messages appear on. But usually, the hardware ordering of each monitor should become irrelevant as soon as Windows has started because Windows places all important stuff (such as the start screen etc.) on the "main monitor", which you can change in the control panel applet as suits your needs.

Unfortunately, there are some applications and games which ignore the Windows "main monitor" setting, instead insisting on using the hardware ordering to decide what should be the main screen and what should be an auxiliary screen.  This is a real issue because often things connected via HDMI become the first enumerated display, and projectors, TV sets, or Oculus Rifts - exactly the devices which should not be used as the main screen - are often connected via HDMI. I think this problem is what this thread is all about.

To reiterate, this is a combination of these games ignoring the "main monitor" setting and the graphics drivers enumerating displays in hardware order (depending on what port a monitor is plugged in).

Now, for possible solutions:

1. Windows could build in more abstraction, forcing display drivers to always enumerate the main monitor as the first display. This would actually be a good solution because it would work just nicely for every game and every graphics hardware, but it probably requires very significant changes to Windows and display drivers, maybe causing backward compatibility problems with older hardware and drivers. Therefore, Microsoft will probably only implement this change if they feel this is really, really, really important. They might feel the pain if a lot of customers contact them about it. However, this forum is probably not the right way to make Microsoft aware of the problem. This is a community forum, and the community cannot solve this issue. So, if this really bugs you a lot, call Microsoft Support (yeah, that probably costs something unless you have a free call coupon), send an e-mail to the right people (product managers on the Windows team - if someone knows the right contact addresses, please post them here), add comments to blog posts about display- or games-related Microsoft blogs.
2. The display hardware vendors could change their drivers or hardware to enumerate the displays in a configurable order rather than in the hardware plug-in order. E.g., Catalyst Control Center could program the hardware to always return HDMI displays last rather than first, and everything would be fine. Better even: it would work without any changes to Windows, no compatibility problems, etc. This is however a feature request that ine would need to contact AMD and nVidia about, and I'm not sure how easy it is for them to implement this (due to potential hardware limitations).
3. Developers could change their applications and games to ignore the hardware identities and use the Windows "main monitor" setting instead. Actually, they should've done so in the first place (I consider it a bug if they don't), but there seem to be too many games with this problem for this to be a practical solution. Nevertheless - contact the vendors of the games that aren't working and try to get a patch from them. (Some games even already have hidden settings that allow moving the game to a different display. With a little bit of luck the game vendor will tell you you only need to edit a config file and add some obscure setting.)
4. Change the ports your monitors and devices are connected to. For example, try using an HDMI splitter to connect both your center monitor and your Oculus Rift to the graphics card's HDMI port. With a little bit of luck (and by connecting them to the right of the two splitter ports), your center monitor now gets hardware identity 1 and your Oculus Rift gets hardware identity 2.
5. Switch to a different operating system. I'm not sure, however, if this solves anything. I haven't tried, but Macs and Linux machines might easily suffer from the same problems, since it is just a question of how games interpret the data given by the graphics drivers.

Best regards,

Fabian

This is driving me freaking nuts........

Okay,

Why can't I simply click and re-identify my stuff? Here is my major malfunction:

I have 3 monitors that I run in Eyefinity with 2 7950's setup in a Crossfire. The 7950's that I'm using have 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1 Mini Display Port per card. You can only use the output on the primary card. This is normal.

In order to run Eyefinity you MUST use the Minidisplay Port. I don't know exactly why. So I hooked up Monitor 1 via DVI, Monitor 2 via DVI, and Monitor 3 via Minidisplay Port.

Here is where it gets tricky: I have an Occulus Rift that I plug into the HDMI Slot. It's normally turned off. However, my video cards only allow for 3 active outputs at any given time. Thus, I use a preset to disable Monitor 1 and Monitor 3  so that only Monitor 2 is active (which is the center screen) and then turn on my Oculus Rift DK2 via HDMI and BOOM! Windows slots it as Monitor 2, pushes back Monitor 2 to Monitor 3. AMD CCC views the Oculus Rift as Monitor 1 and Monitor 3 as Monitor 2. It's causing all sorts of havoc with anything that I try to use with the Rift.

The worst part is that no matter what I do Windows ALWAYS identifies the Oculus Rift as Monitor 2 as soon as I turn it on. No matter what other 2 Monitors that I have active. It doesn't care that Monitor 2 is already on and active. It does this no matter what Monitor I use as my primary or 1, or 2, or 3, etc... It always forces it to Monitor 2.   

Even when I delete the Registry and force Windows to reconfigure the monitors by plugging them in 1 at a time Windows still gets all crazy any time I turn on the Oculus Rift DK2. It hard code assigns it to Monitor 2 for no apparent reason.

Please help. If Windows 10 is a hot mess like Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 and 8.1 I'm giving up on Microsoft and going full Apple. I have everything Microsoft from a Desktop, to Laptop, MS Surface, and I even have a Windows Phone! I've been such a supporter and I'm always getting burned.

Please help.

When a display is selected under "Change the appearance of your displays" select make this my main monitor and it should switch it up the number doesn't really matter too much.

Choosing a display as your "main monitor" in the "Change the appearance of your displays" dialog only affects outward appearances, such as which part of the desktop programs will display on by default, etc.  It does not affect which display Windows actually internally treats as the the main monitor.   One clue to this is that, even if monitor 2 is the "main monitor", the entire boot up process, including windows and the BIOS, displays on monitor 1.   Another clue is that, disconnecting monitor 1 and reconnecting it again disrupts the entire desktop display and causes all open windows to be redrawn, even ones that are on the "main monitor", monitor 2.

So, no matter which display you choose as your "main monitor" in Windows, in the "Change the appearance of your displays" window, both the BIOS and Windows still internally treat monitor 1 as the main monitor.  It does not matter which port each monitor is connected to.  I have both monitors connected to displayports on the same NVIDIA card.  Swapping the connections when the computer is off has no effect.  

I have been trying to figure this out in my head for a long time and have concluded that there must be some permanent manufacturer identifying number within the hardware of each monitor that determines which one will be considered monitor 1 and which one will be considered monitor 2.  Perhaps the manufacture date or the MAC address, or something like that.   Try as I might, I cannot get the BIOS boot process (and therefore the Windows boot process) to occur on monitor 2.    Windows only switches over to moniotor 2 at the last moment when the login screen is displayed.

When a display is selected under "Change the appearance of your displays" select make this my main monitor and it should switch it up the number doesn't really matter too much.