Microsoft is finally fixing Windows 10 rearranging apps on multiple monitors
No more dragging your apps back to where they should be
If you’re a Windows user and you use multiple monitors, you’ve probably experienced the headache of apps randomly rearranging when you resume from sleep. There have been a variety of ways to work around this over the years, but Microsoft is finally addressing it and fixing it in a future Windows 10 update.
“The technical terminology we use to describe this problem is known as Rapid Hot Plug Detect (Rapid HPD),” explains Michelle Xiong, a program manager on the graphics team at Microsoft. “This behavior impacts DisplayPort multi-monitor setups which results in unwanted desktop rearrangements.”
This problem is particularly troublesome if you’re using a laptop with a secondary screen or an additional monitor goes into deep sleep and Windows thinks it has been unplugged. Windows will then go ahead and move all of your apps onto another screen, and you have to drag them all back manually. It’s a giant headache if you experience the issue daily.
Microsoft has been working on preventing Rapid HPD from rearranging Windows apps, and a fix is coming in the big Windows 10 update that’s due later this year. Windows Insiders can currently get access to this with build 21287 or above, but it does mean running a beta version of the OS on a device. Microsoft is expected to ship this final update in October, but if you can’t wait then you can go ahead and try it right now.
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Can we also get them to fix the thing where if I’ve minimized all Word docs, then open up a new word doc file, ALL of the word docs (including the formerly minimized ones) open back up.
There’s so much that I hate about using Windows
Yep, they also need to fix the search features within office 365 programs… With the latest updates they are somehow managing to ruin perfectly working features.
I was just helping my mom with her M1 MacBook air. Her issue on there was similar, any x86 apps would forget their window size after relaunching… Not sure if it’s been fixed.
I’m pretty sure that is not a Windows issue, but is due to how Word is architected. When you have multiple documents open, Word seems not to be not running "normally" (as multiple independent instances), but rather as a kind of hybrid MDL app, we’re all the child windows are controlled by a parent process which responds to the minimize/maximize commands. It would be on the Office team to change this behavior
It’s sort of a mix of a Windows and Office issue. This article gives a good explanation of the UI constraints at play (it’s old, but still relevant):
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/01/dock-and-windows-7-taskbar/
I wrote about it in their feedback hub half a year ago. I couldn’t find an open… problem tracker (work in progress, bug in focus, how do you call this?) so I advise anyone who finds this annoying to write to them too. I imagine the day this is not a problem anymore… just the thought warms me up.
Open Word documents are basically "tabs" inside that instance of Word. You would need to launch a new Instance of Word to have them not be affected by the new doc.
This hasn’t been true since Office 2007 for the main Office apps except Excel. Excel was fixed in 2016.
I actually find that the issue is even more annoying on my Mac. I try to "alt-tab" on a mac from a word doc and I end up back on a different word doc instead of the last app I was using. Usually chrome.
Odd. Never had this happen on my desktop computer with multiple monitors, but happens constantly on my laptop.
When I walk around the office I’m amazed at how much stuff people save to their desktop.
Starting after windows 10, I don’t save anything to the desktop… I use the start menu.
One of the first things I do on a new Windows PC is hide the desktop icons. Right click the desktop → View → Uncheck "show desktop icons"
I wonder if this is related to the issue of losing the monitor primarily with Microsoft games?
Usually it will lose the display when I am shutting down a game. They only way I can get it back is to power off the pc and let it sit for several minutes. I have seen quite a few messages online of other people having the same issue. I can see the desktop if I connect using my VR goggles or remote in using splashtop.
This has happened to me since I bought a new monitor, be happy to see it fixed, but I’ve been waiting for another feature that has been available to insiders for nearly a year, so I don’t have a lot of faith in getting this soon without resorting to using Insider builds.
Microsoft needs to build PowerToys into the default OS. FancyZones solves a ton of window-organizing headaches.
OMG FancyZones is the best.
The single question that I thought about pretty much every iteration of PowerToys that I have ever interacted with, starting from I think XP (or maybe ME? not sure), was:
"Why is this not in the base OS???"
See, these sorts of tools would get 'normal’ users and tech support staff at corporations confused. It should be in a 'power user’ or 'pro’ version of Windows. They are kept as power tools precisely because they don’t want them in the main Windows build.
But you’re right, and putting power user features into labeled version is exactly why different product levels should exist. If it’s a headache to support or confusing for laypeople, then put it in 'Pro’ and make sure 'Pro’ isn’t sold to corporations except with warning labels or something.
I don’t really care about the interface except the glitches (I do suffer from the headline monitor issue). What I REALLY CARE ABOUT is moving on from control panel entirely to settings, and building the better base functionality into their servers (I’m a sysadmin at work). No way to find 'hidden’ storage taking up space without dodgy third party apps, the system events viewer hasn’t improved in years, mapped drives should be phased out now that Windows can do 'normal’ mounts.
Basically, they should be noticing everywhere that sys admins are recommending third party garbage apps to get their jobs done, and build it into the OS.
I get that you don’t want to overload users with too granular of settings, but there’s nothing in PowerToys that most Windows users couldn’t understand. Plus, it’s not like a non-power user would ever need to interact with the PowerToys settings if they didn’t want to.
Hell, one of the features of PowerToys is the exact same Spotlight Search that Apple bakes into macOS as a signature feature. Another feature is just "here’s a guide to what all your keyboard buttons and shortcuts are"
You are vastly, hilariously overestimating the ability of "most Windows users" to understand anything, or to not freak out if something is different or confusing. Source: I work in IT support.
Definitely an issue once you use display port on Windows…glad to hear they’re doing something.
I hope it addresses my issue but I’m not getting my hopes up. I have 4 monitors and one (my least used monitor) is connected to a KVM switch. Switching from the secondary computer to the primary computer is always a gamble. Even if I previously had zero apps on that screen, one app might fling over to it OR it completely switches desktops with another monitor. I don’t have any apps or shortcuts on my desktop to alleviate some of the pain.
I wish one day they can add relative cursor movement from one monitor to another that has different resolution.
I swear this used to work better on prior builds of Windows 10
Mac users quiet on the multi monitor abomination of macos, who deal with a slightly different issue: macos never remembers which desktop belongs to which monitor. Especially when you are working with docks.
Will this possibly fix the 'Show windows side by side’ and 'Show windows stacked’ function that has been broken ever since the very first build of Windows 10? I used to use both of those features SO much…
lol, I would NOT recommend clicking either of those options if you have a large number of windows open
Hallelujah! Now all they still have to do is fix the issue where some hard drives disappear after waking the pc from sleep (and return upon a full reboot), and I am completely happy.
Funny… this is one of my pet peeves so I’m pretty excited. The other one is that I want windows lined precisely up against the task bar, touching it and neighboring windows. I don’t want them moved up so I can see a sliver of the desktop image after I lock and unlock, or moved left or right to not touch it’s neighbors… I went through the trouble of placing them where I did in a purposeful manner. Stop moving them…