Classic Shell: Forum

My system has two monitors on it. Because the DVD player only works correctly on the #1 monitor, I have all of my desktop icons on the #2 screen and that was the default screen for the Metro start screen (before installing classic shell).

When I installed classic shell, starting an APP like "Sudoku Free" started on the #2 monitor as I had it doing all along. After a system reboot, it only starts on the #1 monitor. I have looked through all of the advanced settings and can't find a way to say: "treat my #2 monitor as the main monitor". Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, I would just drag the window to the other screen, but in their infinite wisdom, Microsoft starts them full screen and will not run them in a normal window. (I guess they never heard of multi-tasking.)

This just popped into my head as I typed ... I currently have the settings bypassing the Metro screen on boot up. Perhaps if I don't, the Metro screen will establish an affinity for the second monitor before the classic shell starts.

-- Ralph

Metro UI/Apps generally open on the screen the Metro UI opened up on last. Try setting "Disable Hot corners" to NONE, then click on the metro hotcorner for the screen you want them to open on in the future (Note: not the start button but the very bottom left corner of the screen) After this you can re-disable hot corners

@ running Metro apps in a window: Display fusion, has this capability, along with many others, it is free to try for 30 days, then cost 25$ to buy if you so choose, here is a link (note purchasing from this link will give a share of the purchase price to the developers of classic shell ;P)
http://www.displayfusion.com/?refid=373553 has a feature that will run metro apps in a window that you can drag around.

AFAIK, there is no way provided by MS for the end user or for the developer to control on which monitor an app opens. Metro apps open on the last monitor where there the Start screen was, and desktop apps, well it depends on each desktop app whether it remembers its last monitor. The Start screen itself as Jcee said can reliably be opened by the end user on a specific monitor only if Windows' built-in provided way to invoke the Start screen, aka, hot corners are used.

In their infinite wisdom, MS has defined different keyboard shortcuts for Metro apps vs desktop apps. The keyboard shortcuts Win+Page Up/Page Down move Metro apps across monitors. For desktop apps, they are Shift+Win+Left/Right arrow keys to move an app window across monitors. I don't get it why they can't be consistent.

You can specify the primary monitor from Display Control panel. I haven't been able to find any Dock or any other launcher either that always launches a specific app on a specific monitor. It's entirely left to the developer of the app to make it multi-monitor aware instead of the OS giving the control to the user. This open source tool: http://sourceforge.net/projects/monlaunch/ does it using AutoHotkey (to quickly and automatically move the window) but it isn't 100% reliable for every desktop app because the OS doesn't help in any way.

Edit: Well good news. The latest Classic Shell has a setting to control on which monitor the Start screen opens.

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.