Windows 7 moves/resizes windows on monitor power cycle

Just to keep this on somebody's radar (probably not Microsoft since they have ignored this issue for years and clearly don't give a flying #### about power users).

I have the same problem; Windows 7 moves and resizes all windows from my second and third monitors when I switch to a different machine on my KVM. Windows is up-to-date. All drivers are up-to-date. This never happened on Windows XP. It never happens on my Mac. It never happens on my Linux machines. And I use all three [four actually :-)] on this KVM.

With Windows 7/8/8.1/10, it literally takes me five minutes to put everything back where it was when I switched the KVM (I keep a LOT of windows open at once). I've been looking for an answer to this defect for years, and have seen all the lame responses from Microsoft (when they even respond, which is as rare as a 1909-S VDB penny): update your drivers; are you on a domain? (Eh???); buy a new KVM; replace your monitor(s). None of these are actually helpful, let alone practical. WINDOWS 7 IS THE PROBLEM.

As far as I can determine, the problem is related to EDID (Extended Display Identification Data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended\_Display\_Identification\_Data), which most modern graphics cards and monitors support. NORMALLY, that is a great feature, especially for things like laptops and connecting to video projectors. But some power users (like me), who know what we're doing, and/or use KVM's, televisions, 4k monitors, ... want the ability to set a monitor configuration and have Windows keep its grubby hands off it after that regardless of what monitors happen to be attached or turned on at the moment.

This is like many other Microsoft 'features' that take choice away from the user. These users are your CUSTOMERS. Granted, the average user is as smart as a falling cow pie, and really good software makes their lives easier. As a developer, I know all too well the temptation to think, "If it weren't for the &%#$* customers, this would be a great (job|product|invention|feature). WE are the people who are paying M$ to solve a problem. Pure and simple. If the 'solution' brings more problems than solutions, guess what? Capitalism kicks in and people spend their money where they get the most bang for their buck. Hello, Apple? Hello, Linux? There's a reason these two OS'es have eroded Microsoft's market share to the degree they have. Sadly, I see no change to this trend in the foreseeable future: M$ still produces [expletive deleted] [software|hardware] that only fools would fall for (I am not being fair to notable exceptions; even M$ gets some things right). The latest campaign for the Microsoft Surface tablet will go the way of the Zune media player and Windows Phone. Too little, too late, and too messed up.

I BUILT AN ALTAIR 8800 (which ran Microsoft BASIC btw), bought an original IBM PC when it first came out (not because it was anywhere close to a technological advance, rather because I could see where the industry would go). I have had Mac products for years, and have experience with more operating systems than most people have fingers AND toes. Windows has a lot of features, a lot of users, does a lot of things. And wastes more time and productivity than all other computer software combined.

I have started a list of things M$ falls short on, and this is just one of many, many things. Perhaps one day I will start a blog to publish my perspective on this and many other subjects, but until I retire from my $250/hour consulting job I'd rather spend my time gathering chips (aka $$$). In the mean time, I curse Microsoft software daily+++.

Just a hint of what's on my list: One simple work around for this completely infuriating 'feature' is to run Windows as a VM under either OS X or Linux. Since they don't mess with your configuration except when you ask them to, using a KVM doesn't create this inane problem. Oops. I gave away another [patentable] idea: ONLY RECONFIGURE HARDWARE WHEN THE USER ASKS FOR IT. Just how many man-millenia would THAT save if Windows didn't do an exhaustive scan for hardware changes on EVERY boot?

Is this issue present on Windows 10? I have 4k monitors and I also do not enjoy having to spend the first few minutes re-positioning my open windows after my PC wakes up. I tried the registry fixes mentioned in this thread and haven't had much luck. With Windows 10 on the horizon I had resigned to waiting in hope of this being fixed in Windows 10. If its still present, that will be very very annoying...

Just to keep this on somebody's radar (probably not Microsoft since they have ignored this issue for years and clearly don't give a flying #### about power users).

I have the same problem; Windows 7 moves and resizes all windows from my second and third monitors when I switch to a different machine on my KVM. Windows is up-to-date. All drivers are up-to-date. This never happened on Windows XP. It never happens on my Mac. It never happens on my Linux machines. And I use all three [four actually :-)] on this KVM.

With Windows 7/8/8.1/10, it literally takes me five minutes to put everything back where it was when I switched the KVM (I keep a LOT of windows open at once). I've been looking for an answer to this defect for years, and have seen all the lame responses from Microsoft (when they even respond, which is as rare as a 1909-S VDB penny): update your drivers; are you on a domain? (Eh???); buy a new KVM; replace your monitor(s). None of these are actually helpful, let alone practical. WINDOWS 7 IS THE PROBLEM.

As far as I can determine, the problem is related to EDID (Extended Display Identification Data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended\_Display\_Identification\_Data), which most modern graphics cards and monitors support. NORMALLY, that is a great feature, especially for things like laptops and connecting to video projectors. But some power users (like me), who know what we're doing, and/or use KVM's, televisions, 4k monitors, ... want the ability to set a monitor configuration and have Windows keep its grubby hands off it after that regardless of what monitors happen to be attached or turned on at the moment.

This is like many other Microsoft 'features' that take choice away from the user. These users are your CUSTOMERS. Granted, the average user is as smart as a falling cow pie, and really good software makes their lives easier. As a developer, I know all too well the temptation to think, "If it weren't for the &%#$* customers, this would be a great (job|product|invention|feature). WE are the people who are paying M$ to solve a problem. Pure and simple. If the 'solution' brings more problems than solutions, guess what? Capitalism kicks in and people spend their money where they get the most bang for their buck. Hello, Apple? Hello, Linux? There's a reason these two OS'es have eroded Microsoft's market share to the degree they have. Sadly, I see no change to this trend in the foreseeable future: M$ still produces [expletive deleted] [software|hardware] that only fools would fall for (I am not being fair to notable exceptions; even M$ gets some things right). The latest campaign for the Microsoft Surface tablet will go the way of the Zune media player and Windows Phone. Too little, too late, and too messed up.

I BUILT AN ALTAIR 8800 (which ran Microsoft BASIC btw), bought an original IBM PC when it first came out (not because it was anywhere close to a technological advance, rather because I could see where the industry would go). I have had Mac products for years, and have experience with more operating systems than most people have fingers AND toes. Windows has a lot of features, a lot of users, does a lot of things. And wastes more time and productivity than all other computer software combined.

I have started a list of things M$ falls short on, and this is just one of many, many things. Perhaps one day I will start a blog to publish my perspective on this and many other subjects, but until I retire from my $250/hour consulting job I'd rather spend my time gathering chips (aka $$$). In the mean time, I curse Microsoft software daily+++.

Just a hint of what's on my list: One simple work around for this completely infuriating 'feature' is to run Windows as a VM under either OS X or Linux. Since they don't mess with your configuration except when you ask them to, using a KVM doesn't create this inane problem. Oops. I gave away another [patentable] idea: ONLY RECONFIGURE HARDWARE WHEN THE USER ASKS FOR IT. Just how many man-millenia would THAT save if Windows didn't do an exhaustive scan for hardware changes on EVERY boot?

And if we crank up that fixed resolution by tweaking the registry, why does Windows still push windows away from the right edge? 

I believe you just need to adjust the STRIDE registry key to fix that behavior as discussed by L.. T.. on page 2.

Quote:

"In addition to MichaelAtOz's answer, which also worked for me, there is a third parameter that affects window horizontal placement in that registry hive. It's called 'Stride'. 

In my computer's registry SIMULATED_10DE_1280 entry (Primary graphics card -- NVIDIA GeForce GT 635) Stride was set to 4096 (4*1024), whereas the DEL monitor entry was set to 10240 (4*2560). I also changed that parameter, and now it seems the problem is completely resolved"

I have found a work-around.

Using Sysinternals ProcessMonitor I found that Windows was accessing the following Registry path;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration

My system had three entries;

DELF003YY7707BR0MUL_30_07D7_6A^9A3774EB79DEE3E3E38496CC7DF4D936

QHD32000001_31_07D6_D5^63E1ABDD175E7871DCAEB710418A0F75

SIMULATED_8086_2A42_00000000_00020000_1010100^CDE365D1B3F0942F0CF38BFB8E127AB4

Under each is a tree called "00" two of the keys are

PrimSurfSize.cx

PrimSurfSize.cy

Under "00" was another branch also called "00" two of the keys are;

ActiveSize.cx

ActiveSize.cy

The first two of the configs (ie DELF00... & QHD3...) the above keys were 1440x900,

so they were not involved.

The third (SIMULATED...) were set to 1024x768.

I changed these to 1600x900 and the problem was solved.

Further I changed resolution (via control panel) to 1920x1080, the moving/resize issue returned,

but the lower right corner was set to 1600x900, ie the SIMULATED... settings.

So for some reason one of the configs does not get set correctly.

I don't know why there are three configs, I have only ever used one monitor.

Hope this helps someone out there...

I just purchased a new 2560x1440p monitor [only new hardware in my current setup] and was experiencing this as well connected through DP.

Changing these registry values to my native resolution [2560x1440p] corrected this.

Thanks for figuring this out and posting, such a shame MS couldn't figure this out themselves.