Dealing with multiple monitors

Error 304, turn it on and off again.
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Raid
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Dealing with multiple monitors

Post by Raid » Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:27 am

So I have two monitors; a Wacom Cintiq drawing monitor which is usually out of my eye line (it's on an ergo arm off to the side), and my main 21:9 desktop screen. The Cintiq isn't really necessary most of the time as a monitor, I only use it for using art software. It also has a cooling fan (I don't know why, I've never known a monitor to have one) which ramps up from time to time, more often when the brightness is turned up. So, I don't want to leave the thing turned on when it's not in use, but the problem is that when it's powered off, Windows stops detecting it, and anything that would display on it moves to the main screen. This wouldn't normally be an issue, but Photoshop saves the positioning of every single little sub window it uses, and if I start Photoshop without the monitor on, every single one of those defaults reverts to the main screen, which leaves me staring blankly at the Cintiq when I open a window and it doesn't show where I'm expecting it to.

Which is a roundabout way of saying; is there a way of either keeping the display recognised by Windows when the screen is turned off, or a way of telling specific software packages to default to a particular monitor (which doesn't lose all of its settings if that monitor disappears)? I can't just mirror the main screen to the CIntiq because they're different resolutions and aspect ratios.

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Drarok
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Re: Dealing with multiple monitors

Post by Drarok » Sun Jun 05, 2022 8:38 pm

Sounds like a Photoshop Workspace would allow you to put everything back where it lives easily?
Raid wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:24 pm
And that's the story of why I'm not allowed near pregnant women for the next few weeks.

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Re: Dealing with multiple monitors

Post by Raid » Sun Jun 05, 2022 8:41 pm

Unfortunately that's just the panels that show all the time as part of the interface, not the separate windows that only appear when you select that function.

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Re: Dealing with multiple monitors

Post by Drarok » Sun Jun 05, 2022 10:06 pm

I thought those always appear on the "main" monitor?
Raid wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:24 pm
And that's the story of why I'm not allowed near pregnant women for the next few weeks.

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Re: Dealing with multiple monitors

Post by Raid » Mon Jun 06, 2022 5:23 am

By default they do, but my main monitor isn't the one I want to use them on. I also don't want to make the Cintiq the main monitor as it means everything else defaults to it, including all of my desktop icons and start menu.

Is there a way of creating a virtual monitor that's being rendered by Windows all of the time, that I could then mirror the Cintiq to when it's switched on?

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Re: Dealing with multiple monitors

Post by Drarok » Mon Jun 06, 2022 3:12 pm

I don't know of a way to do that, and I really don't think that would solve your problem anyway, since you'd end up "losing" windows to the virtual screen when the Cintiq is off?

This software claims to be able to take actions on events like "Photoshop opened a window" with its Triggers feature, but I've never used it personally? https://www.displayfusion.com/Features/Triggers/
Raid wrote:
Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:24 pm
And that's the story of why I'm not allowed near pregnant women for the next few weeks.

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