Desktop icons move from main screen to extended screen monitor

Anonymous

I have been using this setup with my laptop for 18 months so I am familiar with extended screen usage. Two days ago a problem started. I have a laptop with 17" screen set to the Main Display plus a 22" not checked to be the Main Display. Screen Resolution > Multiple Displays = Extend these displays. Desktop right click > View > Auto Arrange is Not checked. Sort By options are unchecked. Personalization > Allow themes to change desktop icons is Not checked.

I have all my desktop icons arranged on the laptop screen which is set to be Main Display.

New Problem:

When I plug the extended monitor cable into the laptop or when I fresh bootup or if I had changed the Appearance settings from extended to duplicate or to the external 22" to be off and then turn it back to being extended, any of those things, to basically use the 2nd monitor as extended will cause all the desktop icons to move to the extended 22" screen space. They are supposed to stay anchored to the laptop Main screen since that is how it is allocated. This worked fine until two days ago and I was not playing with any settings before it happened.

If I unplug the external monitor or set it to be unused or as a duplicate image then the icons return to the main laptop monitor.

I use a freeware IconRestorer to save and restore the last saved desktop layout. Since this problem started it restores to the extended monitor not back to the laptop main screen like it had previously. I have killed IconRestorer from the background to see if it was causing the problem and it had no affect.

With the icons showing on the extended 22" monitor and I unplug the video cable for it the icons move to the laptop screen however they are rearranged. Each time I try that the icons form a different layout and order on the laptop screen.

I can then run IconRestorer with the 22" still unplugged from the laptop and all the icons will be restored properly. So I conclude IconRestorer is working fine. The problem seems to be that Win 7 thinks the Laptop screen is not the main screen even though it is checked as to be the main screen.

Once only while repeating these various steps, after the icons are restored with the 2nd monitor unplugged, then plug it back in all looks fine but if I do the IconRestorer restore all the icons again get placed to the extended 22" screen. Usually plugging the extended monitor back in causes the icons to jump to that monitor.

Note that when the laptop is checked to be the Main screen the taskbar is located on the laptop monitor so it only partially thinks the extended screen should be the main screen. If I set the extended 22" as the Main screen then the task bar jumps to the extended screen and all the desktop icons come back to the laptop screen.

It never worked like that before. I also am running win 7 on desktop with 4 monitors and all icons being on main screen at far left and that still works fine including the use of IconRestorer.

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105 answers

Anonymous

2018-07-22T00:28:19+00:00
If I understand you correctly, you want to have two independent screens in terms of application windows, but duplicating the desktop icons on both screens. That is not an options. I see three options for you
1. duplicate the screens by selecting that option in the display settings screen. In this case you get both screens with all the icons, but you really have only one desktop and all the open windows will be the same on both screens
2. extend your screen by selecting that option in the display settings screen. In this case you still only have one desktop, but it is extended over both screens. All of your desktop icons will remain on the main screen however you will be able to have separate applications on the two screens.
3) This is not a normal option. Use option two above for extending your screen. create copies of your desktop shortcuts that are needed on the extended screen and move them to that screen. This might fill your needs as a work around.
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Anonymous

2018-07-21T23:59:25+00:00

Hi guys,

I have read what you guys say and it is great but, what I am trying to do is the following:

When I extend my screen I would like the desktop icons on the second screen as well as the primary screen (laptop screen).

I really need some replies quick.

Thanks,

Jaydan
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Anonymous

2018-06-01T23:16:55+00:00

Guess what worked for me after trying all of the other solutions.

Went to secondary display with all my icons did a "ctrl + A" to select all the icons and dragged them all to my primary display and upon releasing my left mouse button they stayed on my primary display.

Easy peasy!
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Anonymous

2018-05-21T05:15:01+00:00

I found another (quirky) fix to this on my configuration: Toshiba laptop as monitor 1, with Acer standalone monitor connected as monitor 2, running Windows 10. I did mouse right button click on the desktop and View>Medium Icons, and the desktop icons jumped back to monitor 1. I have no idea why this works, but it does, and it's a lot simpler than moving all those icons individually.
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Anonymous

2018-05-20T07:06:27+00:00

Hi all,

the problem (after start, all icons that should stay on the laptop desktop screen appeared o the secondary monitor configured as screen extension) occurred first time a couple of days ago. I tried some of the hints I found in for a but without any success. Today I remembered that I changed one setting on my HDMI1/DVI PC connected Samsung monitor a couple of days ago:

"Auto Protect Time" from "Off" to "2 hours". Essentially, it is the screen saver function of the monitor.

After changing the settings from "2hours" to "Off" again the problem no longer exists. :-) All icons stay on the PC screen as before and as it should be.
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