Three-monitor (part time) setup -- move window to next monitor but skip monitor #3 if it's turned on

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HickBoy

4 discussion posts

I have three monitors (2 regular side by side detected as monitors 1,2 in windows) and a third 60 in. TV connected via HDMI that acts as a part-time 3rd monitor (when turned on it's detected as monitor 1 and my regular monitors become 2,3).

90% of the time I have just two monitors turned on (1,2) and have setup a hotkey (ALT + `) to move the active window to the next monitor. This works great when there's only two monitors but does not when the third is turned on.

I tried excluding the monitor by # in the functions but that does not work once I turn the big 60 in. TV off as one of my regular monitors becomes #1.

Any ideas how I can exclude my TV from being in the rotation of moving windows between monitors?
Is there some kind of GUID that is assigned to each monitor that I could exclude?

Feb 23, 2018 • #1

Right now DisplayFusion only references monitors by their ID #, so there wouldn't be a way to ignore the TV another way, no

If you're able to, switching the cables between monitor 1 and the TV might make the monitor always stay monitor 1.

Feb 26, 2018 • #2

HickBoy

4 discussion posts

Keith,

Thank you for your response. By swapping the TV to the video cards port that is detected as monitor #3 I am able to keep the TV out of the rotation between the two monitors (my initial monitor #'s were a typo) and when I turn it on/off it stays as #3 and no longer appears as #1.

Here's a follow-up question:

Do you have a scripted function you could share with me that would do the following: Swap the selected window between monitors #1 and #2 (bypassing Monitor #3).

Examples:
If Chrome is on Monitor #1, I press ALT+` to move it to Monitor #2.
If Chrome is on Monitor #2, I press ALT+` to move it to Monitor #1.

I found the scripts called "Move to Next Monitor or Show Monitor Selector" and "Move Windows to Monitor 2 or 1, Deplending on # of Monitors Connected". These are good as they allow me to select the monitor. I would like to bypass the additional mouse click and always go between monitors #1 and #2 and just move the windows to whichever monitor it's not on (bypassing #3).

The built-in function called "Move Window to Next Monitor" would work great if I could exclude Monitor #3 but I don't see how you can exclude in the built-ins.

Feb 28, 2018 • #3

If you put a 3 into the "General: Ignore Monitors" option in the Settings > Advanced Settings window, then the Move to Next Monitor function (and all other functions) will ignore monitor 3, so it would only switch between 1 and 2

Feb 28, 2018 • #4

HickBoy

4 discussion posts

That would work great but I have another function called "Launch News and Maximize" that I use to open a web browser, connect to news sites and split them into multiple windows on Monitor #3. Ignoring it will disable this function.

Could you post the code for the built-in "Move Window to Next Monitor" function with instructions to exclude Monitor #3? That would solve my issue.

If needed, I could open an official support ticket but I figured it would be more helpful in the forum in case others are experiencing the same behavior.

Mar 1, 2018 • #5

This should do the trick

Code
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using System;
using System.Drawing;

public static class DisplayFusionFunction
{
    public static void Run(IntPtr windowHandle)
    {
        // Move the window to the next monitor
        BFS.Window.MoveToNextMonitor(windowHandle);
        
        // If the window is on monitor 3, move it again
        if (BFS.Monitor.GetMonitorIDByWindow(windowHandle) == 3)
            BFS.Window.MoveToNextMonitor(windowHandle);
    }
}

Mar 5, 2018 • #6

HickBoy

4 discussion posts

Thank You! Works great and seeing the code helped me understand how it works.

Mar 8, 2018 • #7

No worries, glad I could help!

Mar 8, 2018 • #8