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CyberNotes: How to Change the Primary Monitor on a Laptop

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday


When hooking my laptop up to an external monitor, the first thing that I like to do is extend my desktop over to that monitor. That way I am able to use my main monitor, but I am also able to utilize the screen on my laptop which practically doubles the amount of screen space I have to work with.

The only problem is that Windows has never let me choose which monitor is the primary one, and by default it always sets my laptop to be the primary display. I don’t like this because I have my main monitor in front of me, and my laptop sits more off to the side. Despite there being an option to choose which monitor is the primary one in the Display Settings, it has always been grayed out for me. After several hours of messing around, I have finally been able to figure out a solution that should work for everyone who has that option grayed out.

Vista’s External Monitor Option Grayed Out

On Windows Vista, the grayed out option reads “This is my main monitor” while on XP it says “Use this device as the primary monitor.” The two options mean the same thing, but the wording has been changed in Vista.

The reason that the option is grayed out is because some graphics cards don’t support changing the primary monitor. Well, they do, it just takes a little trickery to get it done. It won’t take you long to do, and doesn’t require you to download any additional tools or hack the registry. I was actually surprised at how easy it is after I figured out how I could get around it:

  1. Here’s what I’m starting out with: the monitor on my laptop is enabled and my external monitor disabled:
    Vista External Monitor
  2. The first thing you need to do is to enable only the monitor that you want to be the primary one. This is done by pressing the Function (Fn) key on your laptop along with the “F” key that switches the display. There should be either a picture of a monitor on the “F” key or it should say something like “CRT/LCD”. For me the key combination is Fn+F8:
    External Monitor Keyboard Shortcut
  3. So right now I have my external monitor enabled, and my laptop screen is off:
    Vista External Monitor
  4. Now I open up the Windows Display Settings, click on the box with the number 2 in it, and choose the “Extend the desktop onto this monitor.” In this case the secondary monitor is your laptop and should be the one disabled:
    Vista External Monitor
  5. Now enjoy the bliss of having the Start Menu in front of you instead of off to the side:
    Vista External Monitor

Note: You can also reverse this process to have the Start menu show up on the laptop’s monitor instead of on the external monitor.

The cool thing is that Windows will remember this setting so that every time after setting this up, it will properly designate the primary monitor. As soon as you unplug the external monitor, Windows will then move the Start Menu back to the Laptop just like you would expect it to.

Hopefully this will help someone out there because I spent hours searching the Internet trying to figure it out before finally sitting down and trying to come up with a solution myself.

ThinkFree Takes Office Suites Offline The Pirate Bay: Now Serving Uncensored Images June 21st, 2007 Written by Ryan
Older Comments
  1. BradleyMarch 3, 2009 at 5:15 am

    Brilliant – my laptop disabled ‘This is my main monitor’ a few weeks ago, I found your article and it worked again.

    I docked my laptop this morning and the option was disabled again. I’ve now bookmarked your article!

    Thanks!

    Reply
  2. hansdotcomMarch 3, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    oh thank goodness i found this! saw so many threads with so much useless information – thankyou thankyou thankyou!!

    Reply
  3. AndrewMarch 9, 2009 at 8:23 am

    Thank you!
    I had mine set up the same way, but while booting this morning, I had the external connected to a server on my workbench via a KVM switch. This confused Windows and reversed my “primary” monitor back to my laptop display and I couldn’t for the life of me remember how to switch it back. This did the trick.

    Reply
  4. NicoleMarch 13, 2009 at 9:28 pm

    Hi, unusual question. Thought I would just check to see if you happen to know. We are using a Mac laptop but running Windows. Keyboard is different. Trying to figure out your workaround but not having any luck. Ideas?

    Reply
  5. NicoleMarch 13, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    Ok, fixed it in a Mac forum here (in case anyone finds this post before the Mac one and would like the link): [discussions.apple.com]

    Reply
  6. AnonymousMarch 20, 2009 at 7:34 am

    Thank you so much. This helped me big time. I was so frustrated. :)

    Reply
  7. MarieMarch 23, 2009 at 7:42 pm

    I did just that and the task bar is on my external monitor like I wanted but now I can’t use the laptop monitor for some reason…what did I do wrong and how do I get to work with both monitors?

    Reply
  8. kookieMarch 23, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    I must say you’ve saved me from selling my perfectly working laptop because before this I had computer “pros” (a company that fixes computers where i’m from) they told me it was junk. I think they should be arrested for false advertisement b/c clearly they’re no pros, u should hold that title! thanks for saving my laptop!! :mrgreen:

    Reply
  9. AnonymousApril 11, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    Thanks! Been irritating me for a while now, nice simple fix!

    Reply
  10. DrewApril 13, 2009 at 9:59 am

    You rock. You saved me a ton of time and pain. Thank You So much.

    Reply
  11. WeiApril 17, 2009 at 4:56 pm

    Great. I spent whole afternoon to find the answer. Yours is the best. Thanks a lot!!!

    Reply
  12. SumantaApril 22, 2009 at 6:27 am

    Wonderful trick !. Solved lot of my R & D time. Many Thanks

    Reply
  13. AnonymousMay 4, 2009 at 5:00 am

    Thank you very much!!!!

    Reply
  14. AnonymousMay 4, 2009 at 6:31 pm

    hey thanks man!!!! much appreciated!!

    Reply
  15. DouglasMay 8, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    Thanks ryan…If you hit fn+f8 twice then both your labtop and external monitor will show the same thing.

    Reply
  16. AnonymousMay 11, 2009 at 9:35 am

    Thanks I was having the opposite problem for some reason. I wanted my laptop to be my primary and the monitor to be the secondary but it automatically put it the other way. This helped me though. I just did it in reverse of your indstruction. Thanks for the help. Now I can take over the world. HA hah HA :twisted: smile! :twisted:

    Reply
  17. AnonymousMay 11, 2009 at 2:44 pm

    Just what I was looking for…. Thanks.

    Reply
  18. AnonymousMay 13, 2009 at 1:36 am

    Blissful indeed

    Reply
  19. AnonymousMay 22, 2009 at 9:23 pm

    thx heaps for that. Laptop monitor had failed and needed to use the secondary monitor. Couldnt get the Fn F8 to work so just closed the lid on the laptop while booting and it went to the secondary as primary automatically. Great short term fix!!! thanks again.

    Reply
  20. loccoelfJune 2, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    nice work helped me at work!

    Reply
  21. CatPedersenJune 8, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    Hi – Can’t thank you enough for these instructions. Was struggling and giving up and then trying again. I was going nuts!

    Super of you to take the time to share – clearly from the comments you have helped a ton of folks.

    Thanks again!

    Reply
  22. AllenJune 16, 2009 at 9:39 am

    You’re a saint. I have been cussing this computer all morning. You’re article helped me get the monitors straighten out in no time. Thanks

    Reply
  23. PJJune 19, 2009 at 7:00 am

    What a top man you are, been searching for two hours trying to sort this out. ;-) Cheers buddy. Have a good weekend!

    Reply
  24. AnonymousJune 22, 2009 at 9:14 am

    Thanks a lot dude! ;) I owe you one! :)

    Reply
  25. PaulJune 25, 2009 at 8:03 am

    Thanks a lot, worked a treat :)

    Reply
  26. mammalmanJune 29, 2009 at 1:04 am

    thanks so much…. just spent most of the morning tearing my hear out – all sorted

    Reply
  27. SandraJune 29, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Thank you for this article and the pictures showing each step. My husband had both our laptops hooked up to larger monitors and something happened to his and would NOT let him fix it. We went through these steps which were different from what he did the first time, but which WORKED! If only we had saved ourselves an hour of frustration and googled the problem earlier. Thanks again.

    Reply
  28. ChrissyJuly 16, 2009 at 2:04 pm

    This was soooo helpful. Thanks! I’ve been trying to figure this out since yesterday. So greatful that you’re article was able to fix it for me…Thanks again!

    Reply
  29. pabloJuly 16, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    I found this informaiton very helpful.

    Widnows is supposed to be userfriedly. Obviously Miscrosoft has stopped testing properly what they produce.

    :)

    Reply
  30. AnonymousJuly 17, 2009 at 2:45 pm

    I have a dell laptop hooked up to a docking station. I want my non laptop monitor to stay on when the laptop is closed. right now i have to have my laptop open to view second monitor. As soon as I close it I loose the monitor! Please help!

    Reply
  31. AnonymousJuly 23, 2009 at 6:13 pm

    Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!

    Reply
  32. Simon in UKAugust 4, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    Thank you. Brilliant. This was exactly my problem and now it’s solved.

    Reply
  33. Andy in UKAugust 5, 2009 at 3:23 am

    Thank you! My work colleague has had this issue for ages. I’m now her hero.

    Reply
  34. GordonAugust 10, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    I too have bookmarked this page. You’d think Microsoft would take the time to document this, but noooooo….

    Reply
  35. SicoriusAugust 13, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    Thank you, thank you, thank you. This was a sanity saver.

    Reply
  36. J LewisAugust 18, 2009 at 2:29 am

    I am another that suffered with misplaced screens for a long time – thank you!!

    Reply
  37. masonAugust 24, 2009 at 8:37 pm

    Thank you so much, you finally helped me to fix my problem.

    Reply
  38. IiroSeptember 2, 2009 at 9:33 am

    Super! Lost my nerws, but kept searching the other day, and the third day … and then there was this article!

    Unbelievable how good it feels to find a solution for a thing like this with help of someone capable write as clearly as here.

    Thanks.

    Reply
  39. CoralSeptember 3, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    Thank you so much~ I usually depend on my computer genius husband for this type of thing but this time I didn’t and it feels AMAZING!!! Plus, it worked! Thank you for the help!

    Reply
  40. JohnSeptember 9, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    thanks dude.. that was the most helpful 3 minute read ever!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  41. CrysSeptember 14, 2009 at 1:08 am

    OMG, thank you sooooooo much!! I like love you, dude!! *LOL* I seriously just wasted like 2 hours of my time trying to figure this out on my own, and then I go online, see your article, and my problem’s solved just like that! *thumbs up* :)

    Reply
  42. AnonymousSeptember 14, 2009 at 9:00 am

    Many thanx! A variation of what you provided has enabled me to load a software program onto my Acer AspireOne netbook using the display settings from my Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop.

    Apparently the built-in resolution on the Acer was insufficient for the program to load. However, with your help I DID IT!

    Unbelievable what gobbledy-gook I received from Acer and the software people regarding this. Both pretty much said NOTHING could be done.

    We KNOW better, don’t we?

    Thanx again!

    Reply
  43. KimSeptember 15, 2009 at 9:23 am

    Not only did this help a lot, but it is beautifully documented, with the screen-shots clearly labeled. Apparently this is difficult to do, as most sites I have seen can’t seem to manage it!

    Reply
  44. AndiSeptember 20, 2009 at 3:47 am

    Thanks so much! Just what I was looking for!

    Reply
  45. RobSeptember 23, 2009 at 10:20 am

    Hi, I’ve got a Novatech laptop and the Fn fuction on my F8 key turns the volume up. My F3 key’s Fn function has a picture of a laptop and monitor seperatesd by a “/” but it didn’t seem to do anything when i tried it. Any ideas?

    Reply
  46. AnonymousOctober 3, 2009 at 3:43 am

    Thank you so much for this!! I have been trying to do this for hours now and was getting more and more frustrated… Thanks to your article I have managed to get it set up as i wanted. It was really easy thanks to the screenshots and clear explanation. Thanks!

    Reply
  47. AnonymousOctober 5, 2009 at 2:32 am

    Cheers brov! Good work, many thanks.

    Reply
  48. Frank W.October 7, 2009 at 4:55 am

    Thanks for this! Never knew it was so easy to change it!
    Cheers from The Netherlands.

    Reply
  49. dunnyOctober 7, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    I have been struggling with this issue for at least 2 years now and I can’t believe how simple it really is. Thank you very much for sharing this!

    Reply
  50. Lewis CopelandOctober 14, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    Wow, after hours of searching, only to find the same solutions again and again, i finally found yours, which works amazingly well. Thanks a lot :)

    Reply
  51. netster007xAll-StarOctober 20, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    Looks like Windows 7 helps clear the waters here. Now in the display settings window a link, “Connect to a projector” which gives options of “computer only”, “duplicate”, “extend”, and “projector only” (this one would change the primary monitor). It even provides a new uniform Window Key + P keyboard shortcut. Now it uses the word projector, but I’m pretty sure that’s just a euphemism for external display (plus it makes for a convenient keyboard shortcut).

    Windows 7 really has a lot of useful additions tucked in there. Heck, it’s driver interface is great. Plus, it’s auto installation finally works. After reformatting and doing a clean install, windows automatically installed my graphics driver and set optimal resolution, installed my network and wireless driver, installed DVD burner driver, installed wireless mouse driver… most things that have compatible drivers were installed automatically on their own.

    Reply
  52. AnonymousOctober 27, 2009 at 11:02 pm

    What happens if you dont have a Fn + F8 key or CTR/LCD on your external keyboard ? I dont have a laptop, and I am using my desktop computer with an LCD tv as the secondary monitor but everything automatically opens up in the LCD tv in full screen mode when I click on it in the primary monitor, I have to drag everything back into the primary monitor manually. If I had an FN + F8 key I could just do it with that?

    Reply
  53. AnonymousOctober 28, 2009 at 7:10 am

    Thanks for explaining the strange configuration steps for windows xp. Wish support.microsoft.com copies this information!

    Reply
  54. CynthiaNovember 10, 2009 at 9:16 am

    I was hoping this would help me but it didn’t. I have two external monitors in addition to my laptop monitor. I don’t want to use the laptop monitor (I think the video card will only handle two monitors anyway). But I want to change the primary monitor and it won’t let me. Even using your method.

    Even with the laptop closed. BLEH. I want to go home and use my MacBook. ;)

    Reply
  55. AnonymousNovember 10, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    Very well explained, thanks for your help.

    Reply
  56. CatherineNovember 12, 2009 at 3:16 am

    Thank you! My work laptop has a nasty habit of deciding that my external monitor is the primary one and it flips the monitors unpredictably. This time, after reading your article, I was able to restore the primary display to where _I_ wanted it to be – you have saved me lots of time and frustration!

    Reply
  57. AnonymousNovember 14, 2009 at 5:38 am

    I LOVE you and want to have your cyber children. You just save me tons of time and looking like an idiot in front of clients!!

    Reply
  58. AnonymousNovember 18, 2009 at 9:48 am

    You are my hero!

    Reply
Older Comments