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Main Display is Suddenly Greyed Out

Anonymous
2017-12-26T16:39:29+00:00

Hey so I had a secondary minitor set to be my main display for my laptop, and now since the most recent update, it is no longer selected, and is now greyed out. I am completely unable to check that box now. Any one know what happened on the most recent update that reverted that, and made it impossible to change now? I imagine its not impossible to change now, but its not as simple as clicking the little box that says "make this my main display" because thats what I initially did. But now i have to go into display settings every time i turn my computer on, or it comes out of sleep. Its incredibly annoying. Please help me fix it!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-04-16T14:39:58+00:00

    Okay so after many more hours of research I stumbled across the solution accidentally. surprised Microsoft doesn't know how to fix their own issue. In order to get the check box ungreyed out.

    Step one: turn both monitors on. Step 1a: open display settings.

    Step 2: click identify the monitors.

    Step 3: click on the 1 or 2 picture of the monitor with the rectangle around it. It will turn orange. You should now be able to access the greyed out check box.

    Step 4: you'll either need to check, uncheck or recheck the Box that says make this my main display.

     I hope that helps and it is understandable.  if you felt that this helped please check the yes this solution helped.  that was way too difficult to find out. Cheers

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-07-02T23:53:20+00:00

    Basically select either monitor 1 or 2 at the top of the menu before clicking the box.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-01-08T20:25:01+00:00

    If "Make this my main display" is still grayed out after following the instructions above, right click on the task bar, then "Taskbar Settings", then make sure "Show taskbar on all displays" is turned off.

    How something is supposed to divine this is beyond me.

    Anyway, after turning this off I was able to select my main display.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-12-26T16:41:05+00:00

    Press Windows key + X

    Click Device Manager

    Expand Display adapters

    Right click the current display adapter

    Click Uninstall

    Exit Device Manager

    Restart

    Press Windows key + P

    Click PC Screen only

    Press Windows Key + P

    Click Extend

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-04-16T14:23:02+00:00

    I had the same question. After unchecking the Box accidentally it became greyed out. And I cannot get the monitors back to normal. Can't make the monitor the main screen it wants to use the TV HDMI. I did a system restore to the closest date I could find, 5 days ago but of course the restore failed.  so after thinking my problem would be fixed I'm still stuck with the same problem. The box "make this my main display" still greyed out... please help. Tried uninstalling the display driver like the other person had suggested and that still did not fix the problem. Help Microsoft it should not be this hard!

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