Question How to tweak my Windows 10 for my two displays

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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I've posted quite a few threads in the last few weeks. I'm re-deploying or giving away some old Sandy Bridge systems. the give-away had a clean Windows 10 install, and the recipient needs some guidance about using the Win 7 downloaded driver files for the Intel storage and LAN controllers, among some other things. I sent my advice in an e-mail, and if he doesn't make those tweaks, I suppose he'll still be fine with it. I'm not going to fret about HIS computer anymore.

the system I'm keeping is a 2700K system with a Z68 motherboard. Instead of a clean install of Win 10, I chose to "upgrade" the old Win 7 OS with all the installed software. I was surprised -- it worked like a charm. No software issues, and all the drivers were shoe-horned from what had been in effect with Win 7.

This always was a system that doubled as an HTPC. I have a s***pile of recorded TV and movies on it -- some can only be played on that particular hardware, others from unencrypted sources have no such limitations.

The system under Win 7 had been set up with my BenQ gaming monitor on my desk, and then a 25-foot heavy-duty HDMI cable run around the room's baseboards to connect with my LG 42" HDTV on the other side of the room. I could probably upgrade that connection with some sort of Bluetooth dongle -- the one that came with the TV is sitting on my desk. I have four HDMI ports on the LG HDTV, and I"m refining the Home Theater setup. So I have a ROKU Ultra on another HDMI port, and my 2700K computer still connected to the first HDMI port.

Win 7 managed this very well, so that I "extended" my two monitors, such that the Windows toolbar with the "Start" button, one-click app icons and the system tray only appeared on the BenQ. The LG TV only showed my common desktop "theme" background. There were no icons, no toolbar with "Start" and system tray items.

Win 10 doesn't seem to have the means of tweaking the display setup to get that same result. Or -- those means are arcane, and I haven't been able to find them. So the toolbar with "Start", icons and system tray are cloned on the HDTV. I tried the multi-monitor "Surround" settings in the nVidia control panel. With that, the 1920x1080 display on my BenQ monitor becomes a 3840x 1080 display. Sure -- ;The Start button and all the stuff to left of the system tray only appears on the BenQ, but the system-tray items that would be on the right side of the BenQ desktop display are pushed all the way to the right side of the LG HDTV. That's no good, because I can't work with them unless I twist my head around like Meghan in "The Exorcist" while awkwardly manipulating the mouse on my desk

Anybody have insight as to how I can get back just the blank desktop with the theme wallpaper on the TV set? I don't want to access the start button on the TV, or any of the system tray items. It would seem that what you could do with two monitors in Windows 7, you should also be able to do precisely in Windows 10.
 

bba-tcg

Senior member
Apr 8, 2010
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It sounds like you just need to extend your desktop to the 2nd screen (TV) under display settings. Windows 10 also will let you display the taskbar on screens other than the main desktop (or not) under taskbar settings.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Anybody have insight as to how I can get back just the blank desktop with the theme wallpaper on the TV set? I don't want to access the start button on the TV, or any of the system tray items. It would seem that what you could do with two monitors in Windows 7, you should also be able to do precisely in Windows 10.
I'm afraid that's arcanum that I don't know. Maybe through some registry edits, or better yet, some third-party software ("DisplayFusion")?
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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It sounds like you just need to extend your desktop to the 2nd screen (TV) under display settings. Windows 10 also will let you display the taskbar on screens other than the main desktop (or not) under taskbar settings.
I'll look into that. The rig will continue to be a "media" or HT PC. At one time, i had two SiliconDust HDHomerun tuners on the network, and this system used them the most. When I removed the tuner hardware, suddenly my recordings weren't playing audio. I thought ten years of recordings -- a lot of good unencrypted stuff like PBS or certain news channels with special events -- looked to be lost permanently. I even had all five seasons of Breaking Bad. I was about ready to wipe the hard drive.

After upgrading to Win 10, it installed some extra audio codecs, and suddenly all the non-premium recordings were good again -- on this machine. Win Media Player works with the files just fine, temporarily. So I need to unhook my WMC remote receiver, and find something to replace WMC like Kodi or Plex(?).

I just don't like having that taskbar on the TV screen, although the software can expand to "full screen" and hide it.

I'm afraid that's arcanum that I don't know. Maybe through some registry edits, or better yet, some third-party software ("DisplayFusion")?

And Larry -- yeah -- it's arcane. You were telling me some time ago that I should get rid of these old SBs, or at least the Win 7 installations. So now, as you know, I've got a lot on my plate to sort out [and if you haven't visited that Memory and Storage thread yet, changing the BIOS anti-surge feature didn't work. Now I've had a crash within a 24 hour span. So it's "all hands on deck" I suppose. . . . ]

On the good side, I didn't lose any of the recorded TV that didn't come from HBO, SHO, STARZ etc. I've got all the Breaking Bad, the entire Bourne trilogy plus Legacy, mostly all of my "favorites". When this box dies, those recordings will die. I just miss Media Center, but I couldn't use it for TV for the past three years . . . Before I got a ROKU a couple weeks ago, we were using the EDGE browser to get TV.
 
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BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
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Thanks for the tip, Sick Willie. That did the trick. "Settings"->"Personalization"->"Taskbar"->"Multiple Displays" --- "Show Taskbar on all displays" ---"OFF"

So that's a little chore that's done while I wait for the server to delete the client backups for the deleted clients . . . PITA . . . [How long should it freaking take for that service to finish the job?]
 

bba-tcg

Senior member
Apr 8, 2010
604
301
136
computerguyonline.net
Thanks for the tip, Sick Willie. That did the trick. "Settings"->"Personalization"->"Taskbar"->"Multiple Displays" --- "Show Taskbar on all displays" ---"OFF"

So that's a little chore that's done while I wait for the server to delete the client backups for the deleted clients . . . PITA . . . [How long should it freaking take for that service to finish the job?]
For a shortcut to the taskbar settings, you can right click the taskbar and the first item at the bottom is taskbar settings. This is a subset of Personalization which you'll see in the left pane.
 

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
15,725
1,455
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For a shortcut to the taskbar settings, you can right click the taskbar and the first item at the bottom is taskbar settings. This is a subset of Personalization which you'll see in the left pane.
Three years left for MS to support Win 10. I think I stopped being more knowledgeable about the Windows OS after Win 7. I should've been more aggressive with Win 10 when I installed it, and was deterred by this as well as the end of Media Center.

I still feel more comfortable with it using "Classic Shell" . . . Now I'm going to post another thread/question about Windows Server.

Again, thanks to both of you.