Windows 7: Dual monitor settings won't stay applied

I have a second monitor plugged in to my laptop. The first monitor on my laptop is 1366x768, and the second monitor plugged in by VGA is 1400x900. The setting I choose is "Show desktop only on 2". When I go to close the lid on my laptop, monitor 1 disappears from the available monitors, but reappears when I open it again. What happens, is that it reverts back to "Extend these displays" but I still want it to only "Show desktop only on 2" by default.

I just upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista, and I didn't have this issue in Vista. For some reason, my first monitor is reactivating itself and my display settings are changing without me doing anything to them. I have to go back every time to change it to show only on monitor 2.

Thanks for reading, hopefully there is a solution.

***EDIT***
I found a similar thread, similar issue, no solution.
Extended Desktop Keeps Reverting Back to Cloned Desktop

***EDIT2***
I did the same with another laptop on Windows 7 Home Premium, and got the same result. Its some sort of Windows 7 issue...is there a workaround?

(I think this topic does not belong here - more graphics/hardware/drivers than virtualization)

It would be helpful to know the make/model/when manufactured date of laptop and the graphics chipset and driver version/date supported OS, and whether you have a specific driver for the external display/details.

Have you attempted to find a Windows 7 device driver for your graphics chip on the laptop manufacturer's support site?

Sorry - I made the post here because I found a similar post in here. I'll check all of that information when I get home. Thanks.

(Sorry about the lateness of this post, but this is the only post I could find when looking for my issue, so I figured this is where everyone who had this problem would look.)

Ok, It may be a little late, but I have officially fixed this problem. It is a very manual, low tech work around. What I did was write down the order of button presses on the keyboard (after hitting apply on "show desktop only on 2") in order to go to advanced, list all modes, and change the LCD to a low resolution, allowing me to get a screen so I could change the settings.

Here are my mapped keys, since it took a bit of trial and error. This key order works if you are trying to get monitor 2 to work, if it is monitor number 4, sub in 4 for 2. After setting "show desktop on only 2" hit apply (make sure you hit apply not ok). Your screens go blank and you see nothing. Press K to keep changes, press tab 6 times to highlight Display, press 2 to change to display 2, press tab 4 times to highlight advanced settings, press space to bring up advanced settings, press tab to highlight list all modes, press space to bring up list all modes, hold up for 5 seconds to be safe in order to scroll up to the lowest resolution, press enter to choose that resolution, press tab to highlight the ok button, then press enter to press the okay button.

From here you should be in 640 x 480 resolution, which most TVs should support, if it doesn't support this resolution, try inserting 3 more down presses after holding up, to get to 720 x 480, or look at it before hand and figure out how many presses it takes to get to the desired working resolution.

The list in short form (so you can write it down) is: K, TAB(6), 2, TAB(4), SPACE, TAB, SPACE, UP(Hold for 5 seconds), ENTER, TAB, Enter.

After doing this, all of your resolutions should stay, and you shouldn't have to do this again! Hope it helped!

Cheers,

Shylo

Whenever I would restart my computer the dual monitor settings would revert back to Cloned settings. I fixed it by moving the "MultiScreen" program into my StartUp folder. Just clicked Start --> All Programs --> Startup (right click Startup -- open).

Then, clicked Start -- All Programs --> Multiscreen (left click to expand and right click the MultiScreen program and Create desktop shortcut) Drag the shortcut into the Startup folder.

Now when I log on it holds the dual monitor settings.
Hope this helps you too.
L.