Managing Display Layouts
The Layout Panel
The Layout panel visually represents how Windows “thinks” the physical displays are laid out in the real world. To Windows, a projector, smartboard, or TV is just another “display”. If you don’t see the number of displays here that actually exist, it may mean one of them is powered off (such as the classroom display), or that Windows does not detect it for another reason. You can click Detect to try to pick it up, but since Windows automatically detects displays when they are plugged in, the problem is likely physical.
Windows numbers displays in the order it detects them when it is starting up. Often it will detect displays in the same order for physical reasons, but this can change any time the computer is rebooted. There is no way to reliably enforce these settings at startup.
Identifying Display Numbers
If you suspect Windows has detected your monitors differently than they physically sit, you can change this layout. A good symptom of this is if you can’t move the mouse between the monitors normally. In the example, display 1 might actually sit on the left. You can click Identify and Windows will generate large black flags on the displays to tell you which number it thinks each display is.
Changing the Layout
You can drag and drop monitors into the correct order that makes physical sense to you. When this happens, Apply and Cancel buttons will also appear. Make sure to Apply to save your changes (or Cancel to cancel them).
Managing Multiple Displays
You are accustomed to the classroom display duplicating whatever is on one of your monitors, but today it is not doing that. You can check and “poke” the duplication settings under the Multiple Displays section.
First, select a display you’d like to duplicate to another display in the Layout panel above (it can be the one you want to display from or to). The selected display will be highlighted blue. As you scroll down, the settings shown will be for whatever display is selected.
Scroll down to Multiple Displays and left-click whatever is in the drop-down. Here, you can duplicate between two displays, or extend.
Extend will turn these displays into unique desktops. So you could in essence turn your classroom display into a second or third desktop and then drag and drop content onto it. If you do this, please change this setting back at the end of class. Most instructors will prefer to duplicate whatever is on their desktop so they don’t have to keep looking at the classroom display while manipulating windows/content and this is considered an OTC default behavior.
Setting the Main Display
Many applications will open by default on the Main Display. Icons will also show on the Main Display by default (they can be manually dragged and dropped onto other displays). At OTC, the left display is made the Main Display by default, unless the computer is an AIO, and then the AIO is always the Main Display regardless where it is or how many displays are present. If you change the settings for a class period, please remember to set it back at the end of class.
Select the correct display and then scroll down and check this box to make it the Main Display. This happens immediately, you do not have to hit any Apply or OK buttons. If you made a mistake, repeat these steps for the correct display.
