Dual monitor setup, taskbar issues (Win 10)

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Mizzle612

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Mar 15, 2022
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I have a new desktop running Windows 10 with a dual monitor setup and the taskbar was displaying on both monitors. Monitor 1 is set as the main and only that monitor has the icons on the right of the taskbar like internet, sound, date/clock, notifications. One day it randomly loaded up and the icons on the right were now on the second monitor, but not the main. No matter what I do to get it back to the main, eventually it will keep switching over to monitor 2 again. I even changed settings yesterday to only have the main monitor display a taskbar and nothing at all on the other monitor. Yet again, I load up today and now monitor 2 has the taskbar and nothing at all on 1. It seems like it keeps mixxing up and identifying monitor 2 as my main monitor. What's going on here? Any ideas on how to fix this??
 
Is the checkbox to "Make this my main display" in Display Settings changing to the other monitor when this occurs? Windows is pretty good about remembering this setting, but if there is a brief momentary glitch for whatever reason it can end up defaulting to the other monitor.

Which monitor is connected to the first video output on your videocard? This would be the screen that the BIOS info / logo is briefly displayed on when you first turn on your computer. Identify whichever port this is, and try to make sure that your main monitor is hooked up to this port. It shouldn't matter which port you connect each monitor to, as windows settings override this once you boot into windows, but if something has a slight glitch (cable, connector, etc) this might make the difference.
 
GotNoRice said:
Is the checkbox to "Make this my main display" in Display Settings changing to the other monitor when this occurs? Windows is pretty good about remembering this setting, but if there is a brief momentary glitch for whatever reason it can end up defaulting to the other monitor.

Which monitor is connected to the first video output on your videocard? This would be the screen that the BIOS info / logo is briefly displayed on when you first turn on your computer. Identify whichever port this is, and try to make sure that your main monitor is hooked up to this port. It shouldn't matter which port you connect each monitor to, as windows settings override this once you boot into windows, but if something has a slight glitch (cable, connector, etc) this might make the difference.
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The checkbox is not changing. It always says monitor 1 is the main display even when those taskbar icons switch monitors. I'll check out the ports and BIOS logo. Thanks for the reply.
 
Just to follow up, I confirmed that the BIOS info is showing up on the main monitor at startup and to confirm, this one is also checked off as "make this my main display" in the settings. Yet still, the taskbar icons are showing up on the secondary monitor. Another random yet interesting thing I noticed today - when you click the taskbar notification icon on the far right of the secondary monitor, the notification pane that takes up the right side of the monitor with all notifications actually shows up on the main monitor!

Doubt this matters but the main monitor is plugged in via display port (using 1 of 3 display ports on the graphics card) and the secondary monitor is an older one that uses a VGA cable going to an HDMI/VGA adapter that then plugs in to the only available HDMI port on the graphics card.
 
I ran into this recently on a customers PC and remember the fix was really stupid. IIRC I just had to unlock the task bar and drag the main taskbar to the main screen. No amount of fussing with the "Make this my main display" helped.
 
Kardonxt said:
I ran into this recently on a customers PC and remember the fix was really stupid. IIRC I just had to unlock the task bar and drag the main taskbar to the main screen. No amount of fussing with the "Make this my main display" helped.
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Just gave this a shot now and rebooted, stayed on the main display. We'll see if this one holds out. Thanks for the suggestion.

dbwillis said:
Wondering if the signal is getting messed up due to the HDMI/VGA adapter ?
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Something to consider if dragging the taskbar over doesn't hold out. It is just a random/old adapter I found laying around that got the job done since this old monitor didn't have any other ports.
 
Okay so it didn't work out. Still booting up on the second monitor but at least I'm able to just drag it to the main monitor.
 
We use Display Fusion software much better than Win 10 display interface.
 
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