Where should the leftmost part of the "desktop" be?

[Michael Lovett]

I'm confused (again )

With just the SP3 (no connected monitors) I have a few icons on my desktop that are in the upper left hand corner.

By day, I connect my SP3 to an external monitor and I extend my desktop into this 2nd monitor and set it as my "main display".

Usually, my icons are then shown on the upper left hand corner of this 2nd monitor (which is what I want/expect) but today, for instance, they're over on the SP3's screen (which is not convenient for me because I like to snap a few store apps on that screen by day - and now with my desktop icons "under" those apps, I can't get to them).

So - is what I'm seeing normal behavior and I just don't yet fully understand how snapping works on multiple monitors... or is this a bug?

Michael

 

[Michael Lovett]

I think I sort of figured this out. Your "main monitor" should be the place where: the start screen comes up when you press the Windows key, and it should be the place where the "leftmost" part of your desktop icons are displayed (assuming you haven't moved them to an extension of your desktop that extends on to another monitor)

In my case, I think the system got confused under some situation and moved my icons to the sp3 screen, because other than that, it is correctly treating my 2nd monitor as the main monitor.

So I just moved those icons back over to the 2nd monitor and things seem hunky dory again.

Michael

 

[GreyFox7]

I have had a couple occurrences where it misdetected my main monitor making which causes it to be treated as a new monitor. messed up.

 

[hughlle]

Not surface but related, but windows related, I recently experienced a problem where having installed a 3rd party slideshow application, that would allow me to have a slideshow on 2nd display with 1st display normal, instead of windows 1st display with 2nd display blacked out. Having tried it, I then experienced a problem where all flash videos and such played in the 1st screen, when set to full screen, all would go full screen on the 2nd display. So maybe window 8 has an issue with some applications setting their own primary display or some such, who knows. But was very odd.

 

[Michael Lovett]

Well I'm having the problem again this morning and its causing real trouble. When I was working in the office yesterday, with multiple monitors connected, my icons were on my "main display" which is a display external to the sp3.

Today I am on the road with the SP3 (obviously with no monitors connected) and I go to the desktop to start an app and guess what.. NO ICONS.

Apparently they are "back home on the other monitor".

Any good ideas on how to get those icons moved back to the sp3 display?

(or do I just tell my employer I can't get any work done today?? Sorry for being facetious, being able to display icons on the right display is basic bread-and-butter stuff and I can't believe MS doesn't have that worked out yet. <end of rant>)

Michael