Question Connecting monitor through HDMI shows only desktop wallpaper, no icons or cursor

[Fifmut]

Hi,

I have a problem connecting my monitor to my GPU through HDMI cable (I've been using VGA up until now). I can see my desktop background and the start menu, but nothing beyond that. No icons, no cursor and I can't see the open windows either.

After reading a bit, I have found out that the problem is that I also have an amplifier connected to my PC via HDMI in the motherboard, and my PC thinks it should display everything there. If I turn off my amplifier, everything appears on my monitor. The suggestion I have read is to change my display settings from Extend to Duplicate, and that seems to have worked for some people. But it appears that Duplicate is only an option if I have both the monitor and the amplifier connected via HDMI to the GPU. The problem is, my GPU only has one HDMI port, so I can't change the display settings to Duplicate either through the Windows settings or AMD Catalyst.

Is there any way to set this up correctly so that everything is displayed on my monitor without having to turn my amplifier off? If not, it's not a big issue, I'll just go back to using VGA, but it's bugging me.

 

[USAFRet]

With both of them connected and ON, you should be able to designate the monitor as the Primary display.

 

[Fifmut]

With both of them connected and ON, you should be able to designate the monitor as the Primary display.

Yes, but when both are on, I can't see anything on my monitor, so I can't change the settings. Or is there some hotkey for that? I'm using Windows 8.1

 

[USAFRet]

Right click on the desktop, and select Display Settings.

 

[Fifmut]

Right click on the desktop, and select Display Settings.

I can't. When both of them are turned on, my monitor screen is unusable, since it only shows the desktop background and I can't see what I'm doing.

 

[USAFRet]

Keyboard to move the window.

ALT+Space M, and then arrow let or right until you see the window