Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10  

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    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10

    How to Change Settings and Layout for Multiple Displays in Windows 10
    Published by Category: Customization
    01 May 2021
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Change Settings and Layout for Multiple Displays in Windows 10


    Quite a many of us have multiple displays connected to our computers, I for instance always have a browser full screen on my laptop display showing PC Help Forum, Seven Forums, Eight Forums and Ten Forums on their respective tabs, and do all my other computing / browsing on the secondary display.

    Most of today's laptops and desktops allow users to connect at least one external display, computers with advanced graphics hardware even more. This tutorial will show you how to setup your dual display system, the instructions are valid also if you have multiple external displays.

    See also:

    If you have any issues and questions about getting the dual display system to work as you would prefer, please post about it in this thread.





    Contents

    Use the links to jump directly to any part of this tutorial


    Part One: Duplicate displays
    Part Two: Extended displays
    Part Three: Change the resolution
    Part Four: Change the size of items on screen
    Part Five: Change the display orientation
    Part Six: Display layout



     Part One: Duplicate displays

    1.) When Windows is installed with two or more displays connected, the desktop will be by default shown duplicated when Windows has finished installing the video drivers. This means that the same desktop is shown on all connected displays; when you move your pointer, open applications and Explorer windows, you will see the exactly same on each display.

    2.) When you check the Display Settings (right click on desktop, select Display Settings) you will notice that the system shows only one display icon, in my case now it shows that both the laptop built-in display #1 and the external display #2 are being duplicated:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_duplicate.png

    3.) When the displays are duplicated, Windows automatically selects the resolution used according to the max resolution of the smaller display; in Duplicate mode the resolution on all displays must and will be the same! In screenshot you can see that although my external display is capable of bigger resolution, Windows has selected and recommends 1600*900, the max resolution of my laptop's built-in display:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_duplicate_recommend_resolution.png




     Part Two: Extended displays

    1.) If you want to show different content on each display, select Extend these displays and click Apply:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_apply_extended.png

    2.) The Display Settings is now showing a thumbnail for each connected display.

    3.) When you are not sure which of your physical displays is shown as Display #1, which as #2, click Identify. Windows will now show the display ID on bottom left on each display:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_identify.png



     Part Three: Change the resolution

    1.) In Extended mode you can set and change the resolution independently for each display, in Duplicate mode changing the resolution changes it on all displays. Select a display then Advanced display settings link on bottom of the Display Settings page:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_advanced.png

    2.) Windows shows the best resolution for your hardware as Recommended. This is usually the max resolution for your current display allowed by your video hardware, but in some cases it might be a smaller resolution. My recommendation is never to select bigger than the resolution even if it was possible:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-2015-09-05_14h50_07.png




     Part Four: Change the size of items on screen

    1.) Change item size on a display by first selecting a display, then using the Item size slider:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_makethingsbigger.png

    2.) An example, here's a 1600*900 display with default 100% item size:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_100-.png

    The same display with 150% item size:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_150-.png




     Part Five: Change the display orientation

    1.) Change the orientation of a display by selecting a display, then selecting either Landscape (default) or Portrait:
    The display thumbnail in question shows you now that the display you selected is changed to Portrait.




     Part Six: Display layout

    1.) By default Display Settings shows your primary display on left and your secondary display on right. If your displays are set the same way on your desk, everything is OK. Moving the pointer or dragging an item now over the right edge of the main display, it will enter from the left edge on the secondary display. Red arrow in below image shows how the pointer moves from display #1 to display #2:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_2right.png

    2.) If you reorganize your desk or for any reason prefer the secondary display being on left of the primary display, the pointer will still leave the display #1 from right and enter display #2 from left:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_2left_setright.png

    3.) You would in this case of course prefer the pointer to move between the displays over the left edge of the display #1 and right edge of the display #2. To do this, to change the Display Settings to match your physical display layout and to get pointer movements logical, simply drag and drop the secondary display to where you have it on your desk:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_draganddrop.png

    4.) Place the secondary display thumbnail where you want to. Notice that the exit and entry area of the pointer between the displays is determined here; how you have set the displays or move them on your desk has none whatsoever effect in pointer exit & entry area or direction. Be sure to set the display thumbnails correctly, in below screenshots the mouse exit & entry area is shown in few example cases:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_pointerhorisontal.png

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_pointerdiagonal.png

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_pointervertical.png

    5.) When done you can move the pointer logically from one display to another, Display Settings layout matching your physical layot on your desk:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-dual_2left_setleft.png



    That's it for now :)

    Kari






  1. Posts : 76
    Win 10 Pro x64
       #1

    Can you direct an app to start on a specific screen?


    I have four displays and I like using each one for a specific purpose. When I start an app, it seems to start where it wants to, so I have to move all of the apps around to the desired displays. Is there a method to send a newly started app to use a specific display?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 17,661
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #2

    mfaklis said:
    I have four displays and I like using each one for a specific purpose. When I start an app, it seems to start where it wants to, so I have to move all of the apps around to the desired displays. Is there a method to send a newly started app to use a specific display?
    Personally I have had no issues with this. Almost all applications, including Windows Store Apps remember the display settings; If I run the Weather App and it opens on display #2 but I would like it open on display #1, I drag it to display #1 and close it. Afterwards it opens on display #1 every time until I drag it to another display and close there.

    Applications should open on the display where they were last time closed.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 17,838
    Windows 10
       #3

    mfaklis said:
    I have four displays and I like using each one for a specific purpose. When I start an app, it seems to start where it wants to, so I have to move all of the apps around to the desired displays. Is there a method to send a newly started app to use a specific display?
    For me, on Build 10240, the only one that won't remember position is Edge.

    Great tutorial Kari.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 17,661
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thanks Edwin :)
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 16,605
    Windows 11 Pro X64
       #5



    Edge always opens on the primary display
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 1
    Windows 10 pro
       #6

    Desktop icons scrambled after last update on dual display (Monitor/TV)


    Hey everyone, I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to but this but it seems to be the most appropriate place for it that I can find.

    Backstory: Before I upgraded to windows 10 I was running Windows 7 with 2 "monitors" {one monitor and one TV} with out any issue.

    Before the update that I got today all of my desktop icons were located on the monitor like I preferred. Once I updated today and restarted my laptop I noticed that 90% of my desktop icons are now located on the TV instead of the monitor. I checked the display settings and noticed that the TV is designated to be display #1 (which i would like to change if needed) I currently have display#2 (the monitor) set as my main display because I use the TV mainly for watching TV and movies so it is not always set to the computer. When ever i change the TV input from the computer i lose most of my Desktop icons. Dose anyone know how i can fix this issue?

    thank you in advanced for any help you can provide

    {If this is in the wrong place please feel free to relocate this to its proper spot.}
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 17,661
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Open the Display settings, select your main display (not the TV), select Make this my main display, click Apply:

    Multiple Displays - Change Settings and Layout in Windows 10-2016_02_14_00_44_091.png

    Kari
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 1
    Windows 10 Pro
       #8

    Program specific font size adjustments with 2 displays / resolutions


    Hi Kari, thanks, great tutorial!

    Hi everyone,
    this is about app/program specific adjustments of font sizes when working with two displays with individual resolutions each.

    I've got 2 displays with different resolutions. Win 10 seems to adjust font sizes automatically just fine when moving a window from one display over to the other. Recently I changed "Page Display" settings of Acrobat 8.3. After "Apply" title, menus etc were over sized on low res display. Windows 10 offered to test the program with different settings. I accepted. Then Windows saved these new settings somehow somewhere for this Acrobat 8.3 program. Now this particular program is on 200% on both high res surface display and low res 2nd display. All others do fine.

    Anyone an idea how I can get the Adobe program back to auto-adjusting font size to 100% on low res display as it did initially?

    Any thoughts will be highly appreciated.
    Thanks
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 1
    Windows 10
       #9

    No Luck


    Kari said:
    Personally I have had no issues with this. Almost all applications, including Windows Store Apps remember the display settings; If I run the Weather App and it opens on display #2 but I would like it open on display #1, I drag it to display #1 and close it. Afterwards it opens on display #1 every time until I drag it to another display and close there.

    Applications should open on the display where they were last time closed.
    No matter how many times I drag a program to the desired display and close it there, it always opens up the next time on the "main" display. I did not have this problem with Windows 7; only since the upgrade to Windows 10.
      My Computer


 

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