Project Menu AKA DisplaySwitch.exe Control Behavior

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Nathan-0933 asked Apr 21, '22 Nathan-0933 commented Apr 26, '22

Project Menu AKA DisplaySwitch.exe Control Behavior

I am trying to figure out how to control the Win+P project options so they can be configured to work as desired. I found this identical question from several years ago that was never answered.

My system has 4 displays connected to a GTX 1070. I would like to have the "Second screen only" option from the Win+P menu enable monitors 1 and 3, and have the "Extend" option enable all 4 monitors. I know this is possible as it was working just like that. I recently disconnected my system and pulled the GPU to do some dusting, and even though no changes were made, the "Second screen only" now enables monitors 2-4 instead of 1 and 3. This is not the fist time I have run into this change, unfortunately last time I did not note exactly the steps I took to fix it, as it was mostly luck.

I am aware of DisplaySwitch.exe and the different command options, but that is just the executable the Win+P menu calls so it functions no differently. In my efforts to find a way to control which displays are chosen for the different options, I have been looking at the registry at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\", specifically under the keys "Connectivity" and "Configuration". Both of these contain a list of my 4 displays as well as all the permutations of them combined (see screenshot). Configuration looks to store the values of the display resolution, XY position, color settings, etc. Connectivity appears to be the one I am after, as it contains the values "Clone, eXtend, External, Internal, Recent, SetId" which match the options for DisplaySwitch.exe.

I deleted all of the keys under Connectivity except for the one that contains all 4 of my displays. I then changed the value of "External" from "DELF043FJ44J46L886S_19_07DE_4F+ACR06D72232435078_33_07E2_5E+DELF042FJ44J46L633S_19_07DE_DA" to "ACR06D72232434730_33_07E2_AD+ACR06D72232435078_33_07E2_5E" with the hope this would change which screens were selected. This does not seem to work, as calling Win+P reverts the registry value back. Rebooting also reverts the setting.

My question, where can I find the setting/registry value that controls this? I realize it's a niche thing, but I used it so much, not having it is really a drag.

windows-10-general windows-10-setup

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Answer 1 · 2022-04-25T08:53:05.04Z

LimitlessTechnology-2700 answered Apr 25, '22 Nathan-0933 commented Apr 26, '22

Hi Nathan-0933,

There is no way to change what the standard Win+P options do. The DisplaySwitch.exe file has 4 switches and they can't be modified in any way.

displayswitch /internal Use one monitor, the internal one, only.
displayswitch /clone Show the same content on both (all?) monitors.
displayswitch /extend Make content larger, allow mouse to move from one monitor to the other.
displayswitch /external

You can create shortcuts or batch files to instigate these commands using the displayswitch.exe /required switch command.

This article may provide some insight into a solution for your issue:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/win32/api/winuser/nf-winuser-setdisplayconfig?redirectedfrom=MSDN

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

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Nathan-0933 · Apr 26 at 12:29 AM

Thanks for the replay LimitlessTechnology-2700

I'm fine with just those 4 switches, I just wanted to better set what they each do. I know there has to be some mechanism that controls it, even if it is not be configurable. This happened to me 8 or 9 months ago where they Win+P stopped working, and I was able to get it to work again after far too many reboots, deleting of monitor configs from the registry, and unplugging/replugging monitors. I landed at the solution out of pure luck then, I was hoping to have a more direct approach this time.

I quickly read over the doc you provided, it looks to be targeted at app development which is a bit out of my wheel house, but I'll see if I can extract anything useful from it.

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