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Windows 10 Dual Displays - Keep my main display

Anonymous
2020-08-04T19:26:09+00:00

I have been using Windows 10 on my Dell desktop PC for many years.  I recently installed a clean installation & of course have all the updates.  I have 2 monitors, my main Lenovo 24" 1920x1080 monitor (display 2), and my 55" Samsung 4K HDTV (configured 1920x1080) (display 1),.  When operating with a single display, the Lenovo (#2) is the active display.  It is the identical setup I had on my previous installation of Windows 10.  Now when I switch to "Extend these displays" in Display Settings, all of my desktop icons appear on Display 1 (Samsung TV), where on my previous installation of Windows, they remained on Display 2 (Lenovo).   In the "multiple displays" section of Display Settings, Display 2 has the checkbox "Make this my main display" checked, and it is greyed out.  When I highlight Display 1 (TV), that setting is available and it is unchecked.  My single Taskbar remains on the Lenovo monitor (2), which is what I want. 

I have looked in Advanced display settings, but cannot find a setting help.  How do I get my desktop to stay on the Lenovo monitor (2)?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-10-18T14:53:16+00:00

    Aaargh.  Shut down overnight, and when I booted Windows this morning, I'm back to the same problem.  When I Extend the Displays, all my desktop icons move to the extended display, rather than staying on my main display.

    Suggestions anyone?

    Did you ever get this resolved it is happening to me too

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-05T21:59:04+00:00

    Thanks for your help, dnnglvcnt8.  The tutorial you mentioned did not actually solve the problem, but it gave me a hint to what would solve it.  I'll describe what I did in the hopes that it will help others.

    The trick was to make the changes in the graphics adapter settings.  (in my case it was the on-board graphics of my Intel CPU.)  I right clicked on the desktop to open Graphics properties, then looked at multiple displays settings.  I made my Lenovo monitor the primary display.  I had to reboot a couple of times, but it got back to the way it was supposed to be, with the icons on my Lenovo monitor.  Then I noticed that my scaling problem was back, windows on the Lenovo monitor expanded when moved to the extended display (Samsung TV).  See my previous question a few days ago, "Different Window scaling with dual monitors".  I tried changing the scaling in both the Display Settings and the Graphics Properties, but without success.

    I looked in the graphics adapter settings again, and saw that the resolution of the Samsung TV was set to 1024x768.  I changed it back to the correct 1920x1080, and that solved the scaling problem.  Had to reboot again, but finally the icons were on my primary display (Lenovo monitor) and windows did not change size when moved from one display to the other. 

    Then I noticed that my Taskbar had now moved to the TV, instead of where it belonged on the primary display (Lenovo monitor).  I wasn't able to set the Taskbar location to the primary display in Taskbar settings (there was a setting for that in the Display Settings of my previous installation of Windows).  But in Taskbar settings, I was able to unlock the Taskbar, manually drag it back to the primary display, the lock it again.

    With that, I think I'm done.  All is well with my dual displays.

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  3. Jan J.23 13,410 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-08-04T20:10:51+00:00

    Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is Jan an independent Microsoft Advisor and a user like you. I'll be happy to help you out today.

    1. Move all the icons to the Display/monitor where you want it to be when you extend it.
    2. If you want a monitor to be your main display make sure you select display number correctly. You can do this by clicking "identify" under the list of monitors. Then select your main display,

    If the "Make this my main display" is greyed out it means that it is already your main display.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Jan J.23 13,410 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-08-05T06:31:45+00:00

    Thank you for updating me about this issue.

    I apologize that those steps did not resolve the issue.

    Maybe someone else in the community has an idea.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2020-08-05T00:31:02+00:00

    Thank you for your reply, TechPenguin.  Unfortunately that doesn't solve my problem.  As you point out, the monitor is already my main display, and of course I start with all the icons on that display because it's the only display.  But when I "Extend these displays", the icons all move to the new display - the TV. 

    As I mentioned, this did not happen with my previous installation of Windows.  But I cannot see what is different on this new installation of Windows.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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