Controlling which monitor application opens

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. In Windows, if you have multiple monitors, application windows tend to appear wherever you most commonly put them.

If you have different setups for example a laptop with one external monitor at home but three monitors at work Windows will even tend to remember where you like to put each app on each setup. On Mac you can configure each app to open on a certain monitor. They don't adapt to different monitor setups, they go where you configure them. But there are a bunch of non-obvious steps to do it.

Otherwise, all your monitors are one "space" and application assignments are impossible. If you have one Desktop on each Monitor, that's two or more altogether but it's not enough. You have to create another Desktop on either monitor, even if you don't intend to use it. That's the key to unlocking the elusive menus that allow you to configure this.

With all that out of the way, start any app, right click on its Dock icon, choose Options and there you will see "Assign To". V annoying! Try these: 1. Right click a free area of the desktop, select "properties" 2. Click the "settings" tab 3. Click the mouse on the seconary monitor grapic, 4. Click the primary monitor graphic 6. If you're not sure which is 1 and which is 2, tap the "identify" button. It should display a huge, gigantic "1" on the primary monitor. What is the PrtScn key?

How do I move a program from one screen to another? Was this page helpful? Thank you! Start a conversation. Copy link. Software deals Friday round-up. I agree with the Privacy Policy regarding my personal data. With the procedure described above, mouse position defines this active screen. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. How do you control what monitor your application opens on?

Ask Question. Asked 13 years ago. Active 4 years, 10 months ago. Viewed 80k times. Related Questions What determines the monitor my app runs on? This question discusses existing applications and how they decide what monitor to run on. The currently accepted answer provides Windows functions that can be used to control the positioning of an app on start-up.

Start program on second monitor? Improve this question. Community Bot 1 1 1 silver badge. Thomas Owens Thomas Owens k 94 94 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. I identified two similar questions that are Windows oriented.