How to prevent apps opening on the TV monitor when it's turned off?

[Moribund]

This has been a rather annoying problem. I still have Windows 7. My setup includes 3 monitors - 2 regular 24-inch ones and a 40 inch Haier TV. Now, I only use TV to watch HD or 3-D films, 90% of the time I like to keep it turned off. Problem is - applications like Skype - when they are minimised and I maximize them, or when the program like VLC, or Winamp, or even my Logitech camera software opens - it nearly always opens on the TV monitor and I have to turn it on just to be able to move the app's window to my normal 24 inch LED monitors. Then I have to turn the TV off again. Which of course takes extra 6-8 seconds.

The applications open on that TV set regardless of whether they were last open on it, or on another monitor. For example - I minimise Skype from my Calypso 24 inch monitor but when I put the PC to sleep and come back the next day and resume session - Skype now opens on my Haier TV!!

This is how I have them connected 1. Dynex 24 inch monitor (my main monitor): VGA from GPU 2 Calypso Monitor: USB adaptor to DVI 3. Haier TV: HDMI from GPU

IS the reason for this that I have Haier TV connected through HDMI? Is there a way to have the applications open on either of my 24-inch monitors instead of TV? For example - change this through GP editor somehow? I would be very grateful for advice on this matter. It's not a huge problem but has been with me for a while. Thanks in advance

 

[BFG-9000]

May not be surprising that HDMI is preferred over USB which is essentially a software video card. I'd probably workaround it by just unticking "Extend Windows to this display" when not watching movies, which has the added benefit of never losing your mouse cursor on the shut-off TV. "Duplicate these displays" would be appropriate only if it let you pick just two to clone.

It's too bad there's no option to "Show desktop on only 1 and 2." I am not sure how you got this to work at all as Windows 7 (unlike XP or 10) is supposed to require the same driver for all installed video cards and your USB one is clearly different.

 

[Moribund]

I did that, but this ends up re-arranging the icons every time and placing them on my Dynex (VGA Monitor) Instead of the Calypso one where I keep them. Also when I tick the "extend to this monitor" option - the resolution that's selected is wrong and I also have to change that. Last but not least - I am using a dual wallpaper utility which places a different wallpaper on each monitor. Once I untick the extend to this monitor option - these setting are also lost. So it's quite inconvenient. Isn't there some kind of an option to prevent apps from opening on TV by default through Windows Power Shell or GPE?

As far as how I did it - this kind of setup isn't unusual even for Windows 7. But yes, not all video cards are capable of interacting with USB to DVI adaptor drivers in Windows 7, it's true. Gaming cards usually have no problem with this kind of setup, I tried a few of those with no problems, plus some of them can support the third display through display port, just using its native driver - but I was unable to get it to work this way in Windows 7. The Dynex monitor had horrible picture quality when I did it, some gaming card drivers only recognised it as "generic monitor" and picture quality sucked.

One that I am using now - ATI Radeon HD5450 is just a simple video card but it has no problem interacting with USB to DVI driver. Absolutely requires Windows Aero, however for HDMI monitor to work properly which I found a bit strange. Would have been totally flawless if not for this problem with applications favouring the Haier TV most of the time. I'm still hoping there is some other, simpler way this can be remedied.

 

[BFG-9000]

Hmm, I never had a problem with programs opening on the wrong monitor. You're supposed to move the window to the monitor you want it to always open on, and then close it without resizing it. After relaunching it you are then able to maximize it and it should stay.

But back when I used dual monitors on 7, I used a little utility called MultiMon to add a separate taskbar for the 2nd monitor. If you don't use this feature (it would put all the programs displayed on the TV only on the TV's taskbar where you can't see them when it's off), it does have little arrows to move the application to different monitors. So if the program is on the TV you could at least simply click the arrow once or twice to move it to whichever monitor you like, without having to turn on the TV to see what you are doing.

I believe (WINDOWS KEY+ SHIFT + Arrow key) does the same without having to install any software. Without the shift it's the same as Windows move so you see it slowly dragging the window.

There was another program that was similar but also handled wallpapers, called DisplayFusion but I never tried it because it was like 50x larger. Also others like MaxTo, UltraMon and "Actual Multiple Monitors" (which supposedly lets you specify the start monitor for each program).

 

[Moribund]

Yeah Windows Key plus shift plus arrow usually works but there are some programs that are for some weird reason resistant to it - Winamp of all things. I will definitely try the programs you suggested. Thanks you so much for your time!