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I have a laptop that normally sits inside a docking station. Connected to the docking station are two monitors which are used as display devices (the laptop's own monitor is switched off as the graphics card can only drive up to two).

When I remove the laptop from the dock, all open windows move to the one screen that is still connected (the laptop's own display). That is as expected. However, when I reinsert the computer to the docking station, the internal display turns off and the monitors connected to the docking station turn on. But all the windows are still on the "main" display and the second monitor displays only the desktop wallpaper.

Is there any way I can force windows to "remember" their placement on the multimonitor setup so that when I reinsert the computer into the docking station, then windows that were on screen 2 return there?

Manjabes
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  • Only with third party software. eg DesktopOK, RecIcon,... – Zina May 09 '16 at 10:28
  • DesktopOK seems to be focused on desktop icons, but I couldn't care less about those (I have so may windows open all the time that I almost never see them). My concern are the programs and their windows. – Manjabes May 09 '16 at 10:41
  • Oh, sorry, my bad. Hm, I never came across an app which would move the windows on resolution/monitor change. I always move them myself, which is not a big issue to me, as I most often have only one or two changes per day. If you are moving a lot around with your laptop - I hear your pain. Maybe you can find something useful [here - Save window locations of applications](http://superuser.com/questions/240362/save-window-locations-of-applications) – Zina May 09 '16 at 10:48

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Built in Windows functionality when it comes to remembering window positions is really primitive, so you'll have to use 3rd party software to achieve this.

  • Most third-party software wants to do way more than just that. Add buttons to the title bar, create a fake taskbar (for windows < 8 where the multimonitor support was even more basic compared to what we have now) etc. Found a promising link in an answer to a linked question ( https://github.com/adamsmith/WindowsLayoutSnapshot ) and I think I'm going to try that out. – Manjabes May 10 '16 at 06:44
  • That didn't work out either. External screens started flickering furiously. Well, maybe I should just live with it. – Manjabes May 19 '16 at 09:57
  • And, of course, the great big Anniversary Update did nothing to fix this. Because Ink and Cortana and the Linux subsystem are so much more important.... – Manjabes Aug 08 '16 at 06:54