Windows 7: Dual screen centers the active window

Reboot · 18 Jun 2010

Hi everyone,

I'm working on deploying Windows 7 Pro into my office and one of the problems I've come across is that, when a window opens on a dual screen system it opens centered on the two screens. This leaves one half of the window on one screen and half on the other screen. While this doesnt sound like a major problem, my test user is getting every non full screen window opening split between the two screens. Has anyone seen this kind of behavior before?

dnorris · 18 Jun 2010

I've had dual screens for quite a while, and seldom see that.
Usually the box pops up on the primary screen.

chinga69 · 18 Jun 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Reboot

Hi everyone,

I'm working on deploying Windows 7 Pro into my office and one of the problems I've come across is that, when a window opens on a dual screen system it opens centered on the two screens. This leaves one half of the window on one screen and half on the other screen. While this doesnt sound like a major problem, my test user is getting every non full screen window opening split between the two screens. Has anyone seen this kind of behavior before?

hi if you drag the pop up to the middle of either screen and then close it
the next time it pops up it should be in the middle of one or the other of the screens

brad

Reboot · 21 Jun 2010

We've tried dragging it and closing it in one of the two screens but this has not resolved the problem. One thing I will point out is that the software that does this is running in a virtual computer for XP compatibility. No matter where we close one of these windows the next one always reappears on the split between the two screens.

Thorsen · 21 Jun 2010

I have seen this, but only with Error messages and the "info" windows that show up when launching certain apps.

Is this happening with every non-full screen program or just a few in particular. the coding is probably saying to center the window by dividing total screenwidth and screenheight by 2 to find center of screen.

Reboot · 21 Jun 2010

This is happening with two programs that we have to run in Windows XP Compatibility mode. The programs are being run in non-full screen mode, usually positioned on the right hand monitor. Each time the user does something that would cause an error window or info window to appear it pops in right on the dividing line. All other programs running normally on Win 7 are not behaving in this manner.

Thorsen · 21 Jun 2010

This is because the code for the program is saying "display errorwindow A at position x,y (center of screen)"

Technically, actual code whould look something like this:

display errorwindow A at position x,y where x= 1/2(screen_width) - 1/2 (errorwindow_width) and y= 1/2(screen_height) - 1/2 (errorwindow_height)

or something like that.

I dont think, if you move it, it is going to remember the screenposition as its screenposition is always calculated as find-center-of-screen.

If you run it on a one-monitor workstation you wont see this. Are you seeing the issue if you run it as full-screen?

WindowsStar · 21 Jun 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by chinga69

Quote: Originally Posted by Reboot

Hi everyone,

I'm working on deploying Windows 7 Pro into my office and one of the problems I've come across is that, when a window opens on a dual screen system it opens centered on the two screens. This leaves one half of the window on one screen and half on the other screen. While this doesnt sound like a major problem, my test user is getting every non full screen window opening split between the two screens. Has anyone seen this kind of behavior before?

hi if you drag the pop up to the middle of either screen and then close it
the next time it pops up it should be in the middle of one or the other of the screens

brad

I have had this happen many times as well. Unfortunately Brad’s solution only works if the program is designed to remember the last position. Many applications just center the message not thinking about multi-monitors. Every time this happens to me I post or email a message to the author of the software hoping they will fix the software to support multi-monitor as this is becoming the norm.

Zepher · 21 Jun 2010

that usually happens when the screens are set for horizontal span vs Dual View.

In Horizontal span, if you maximize a window it will maximize across all screens, with Dual View it will only maximize on the screen it is on.

WindowsStar · 21 Jun 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Zepher

that usually happens when the screens are set for horizontal span vs Dual View.

In Horizontal span, if you maximize a window it will maximize across all screens, with Dual View it will only maximize on the screen it is on.

That makes complete sense, and it should work that way, unfortunately for some applications it does not. Some software is programmed in such a way as it will split the dialog box between the screens anyway regardless if you are in dual view or not.

Windows 7: Dual screen centers the active window

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