Possible to re-assign monitor identities/numbers?

I would not delete "default Monitor", without further research. A restart would probably reinstall it if you lose your monitor from deleting that. But probably it would not delete anyway.

djbillyd said:

I would not delete "default Monitor", without further research. A restart would probably reinstall it if you lose your monitor from deleting that. But probably it would not delete anyway.

Any idea why the permissions do not allow me to delete the two folders DELA05D and DELA0DB? I cannot see any other way to get my monitors to be detected as 1 & 2 and not vice-versa. Thanks Alex

That's the research YOU must do. I have a project that requires multiple monitors, as many as 5, with 4 displaying the same files, and the other with a timer. But I don't sweat over which one is 1, or 2. I select the one on the screen for the control dashboard. And use the other one, whether ID'd as 1, 0r 2, for the extension project.

djbillyd said:

That's the research YOU must do. I have a project that requires multiple monitors, as many as 5, with 4 displaying the same files, and the other with a timer. But I don't sweat over which one is 1, or 2. I select the one on the screen for the control dashboard. And use the other one, whether ID'd as 1, 0r 2, for the extension project.

I did already my research and this is the best thread on this topic I found. I guess I will have to open a new thread regarding the reason why I cannot delete my registry keys. Alex

Good idea! Sometimes, it just leads us to another question..., and then sometimes, it works!

Try Brink. That is a true guru on this site.

Guys I'll be honest, I didn't have the time or desire to read through 5 pages of comments but I googled and came to this forum because I had this problem too, Windows 10 was getting the identity of my monitors all wrong and primary desktop was on the wrong screen. Sure you can tick the tickbox to force a particular screen as your primary monitor but that doesn't resolve all issues, MY biggest problem was dragging items between screens, I had to drag off to the left to get things to my monitor on the right...and if I want to click a desktop icon I run the risk of scrolling too far to the left and ending up on my other monitor.

Soltion I found (which might've been mentioned?) is not to care about the actual monitor identity numbers, all you do is that in the display properties where you see the image of monitors 1 and 2 side by side then you just click and drag the monitors to switch the order and click 'apply', this fixed things to the way I need it to be and I hope it works for you guys.

I HAVE A SOLUTION!!!

First things first, I read through this entire thread feeling the same frustration as the OP with some of the answers. We don't just want to switch our primary monitor using a checkbox. The display numbering between monitors is wrong and it affects the use of our systems. It isn't as simple as a Windows setting and the previous answers have been very dismissive. I'm not getting into why our monitor identities must be correct, it must simply be understood that for whatever purpose the default system settings need to be restored. Now, on to the solution.

It must be noted that I tried the registry hack in one of the previous comments. Deleting the values from HKEY/LOCAL MACHINE/CurrentControlSet/Enum/Displays is difficult and was ineffective for me. But....the logic behind it is sound: when the video drivers were installed the external monitor enumerated first in the registry. EUREKA!

I realized I had updated my video drivers (I have an Nvidia card) a few days ago with my second monitor plugged in. I was sure as heck my machine had simply attached it to a port first when installing the update. And it had. The fix is easy.

Unplug your secondary monitor. Uninstall your video drivers and reboot. Keep the second monitor UNPLUGGED. Open the Windows device manager (Win+X menu) and again uninstall your display drivers. When it prompts for confirmation make sure you check the box that deletes all driver software. If it is not present you may have to reboot and try again. This will force your display to use the default Windows 10 VGA controller driver. Reboot your machine.

Reinstall your OEM drivers, again with the secondary monitor UNPLUGGED (let Windows update the drivers if you don't have support software). Reboot your machine one last time.

Now when your computer reboots your native display WILL be your primary monitor and numbered correctly as it was the only display plugged in when the drivers enumerated. When you plug in the second monitor it will again be number 2.

To prove that this was indeed the problem I installed my drivers again with the second monitor PLUGGED IN and it screwed the identities up. I followed the steps above and the results were repeatable.

I hope this helps everyone. This was the most informed thread I had found on the topic and I registered on TenForums just to share my discovery. It wouldn't have been possible without everyone's contribution here, so thank you!

djparent said:

I HAVE A SOLUTION!!!

First things first, I read through this entire thread feeling the same frustration as the OP with some of the answers. We don't just want to switch our primary monitor using a checkbox. The display numbering between monitors is wrong and it affects the use of our systems. It isn't as simple as a Windows setting and the previous answers have been very dismissive. I'm not getting into why our monitor identities must be correct, it must simply be understood that for whatever purpose the default system settings need to be restored. Now, on to the solution.

It must be noted that I tried the registry hack in one of the previous comments. Deleting the values from HKEY/LOCAL MACHINE/CurrentControlSet/Enum/Displays is difficult and was ineffective for me. But....the logic behind it is sound: when the video drivers were installed the external monitor enumerated first in the registry. EUREKA!

I realized I had updated my video drivers (I have an Nvidia card) a few days ago with my second monitor plugged in. I was sure as heck my machine had simply attached it to a port first when installing the update. And it had. The fix is easy.

Unplug your secondary monitor. Uninstall your video drivers and reboot. Keep the second monitor UNPLUGGED. Open the Windows device manager (Win+X menu) and again uninstall your display drivers. When it prompts for confirmation make sure you check the box that deletes all driver software. If it is not present you may have to reboot and try again. This will force your display to use the default Windows 10 VGA controller driver. Reboot your machine.

Reinstall your OEM drivers, again with the secondary monitor UNPLUGGED (let Windows update the drivers if you don't have support software). Reboot your machine one last time.

Now when your computer reboots your native display WILL be your primary monitor and numbered correctly as it was the only display plugged in when the drivers enumerated. When you plug in the second monitor it will again be number 2.

To prove that this was indeed the problem I installed my drivers again with the second monitor PLUGGED IN and it screwed the identities up. I followed the steps above and the results were repeatable.
that
I hope this helps everyone. This was the most informed thread I had found on the topic and I registered on TenForums just to share my discovery. It wouldn't have been possible without everyone's contribution here, so thank you!

Thank you. I had to do that for a rebuild that I was still updating. It, too, had NVIDIA graphics. And with both monitors connected, it was all over the place.

I appreciate your input. Thanks!

alphanumeric said:

OK, refresh me will you what is that actual problem? Why does it matter that the TV is shown as monitor 1? And what issue that you can't solve does it create? I honestly want to help? I just don't see why your fixated on it being labeled as Monitor no 1.

It makes a huge difference when you turn the TV on, and it shows the PC screen instead of the Walking Dead. I can be watching TV, and wake up the sleeping PC, and the PC screen comes on the TV!

I suppose the only solution to this stupidity is to get a video card with multiple HDMI ports.

djparent said:

I HAVE A SOLUTION!!!

That didn't work for me (I have an AMD card)
I unplugged all monitors but the one I wanted to be my primary monitor with identity 1.
Then I deleted all monitors including drivers from the device manager (using the option to display unplugged devices).
I also deleted the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Connectivity

Then I uninstalled the display driver (all Radeon software), rebooted, uninstalled the WDM drivers, rebooted (all of that time had all other monitors unplugged).
Then I installed the AMD software again.
But the Radeon system settings identified the second monitor (a touchscreen) as #1 again.
I suspect that there are some user-profile-files that didn't get deleted when I uninstalled the Radeon software.
Or I missed some registry keys.

Microsoft: this sucks. Windows should allow us to change the monitor identities without messing around in registry for hours.