Laptop connected to Secondary/External Monitor moving windows when closing/opening lid

[Hyatice]

So, this isn't truly a troubleshooting thread: I've already figured it out.

 

HOWEVER, I did not find a single thread anywhere on google that described the problem I was having accurately, so I figured I'd throw the information out there.

 

The problem:

 

Whenever I close and subsequently open my laptop lid, the secondary/external monitor would flash and all windows would move to the laptop monitor.

 

The solution:

 

My refresh rate on my secondary monitor was set differently for the "Extend these displays" mode and "Second screen only" (or "mirror these displays" would also apply here) mode. One was set at 120hz, and one was at 144hz, for some reason. Once I updated both to 144hz, I stopped getting the flash AND my windows stopped moving. The laptop screen would still turn on, which isn't ideal, but is a lot less disruptive to Win+P it away when necessary than to have to deal with windows being resized/moved.

[cr8tor]

11 minutes ago, Hyatice said:

Whenever I close and subsequently open my laptop lid, the secondary/external monitor would flash and all windows would move to the laptop monitor.

That's because windows knows the monitor closed and that you can no longer see it, so it moves everything to the screen that is still turned on.

Normall to fix this you can change the setting "Choose what closing the lid does".

To get to that setting:

Go to settings > System > Power & sleep > Additional power settings (on the right side)

Click “Choose what closing the lid does” (on the left side)

Change the option for “When I close the lid” to “Do nothing” 

[Hyatice]

Just now, cr8tor said:

That's because windows knows the monitor closed and that you can no longer see it, so it moves everything to the screen that is still turned on.

Normall to fix this you can change the setting "Choose what closing the lid does".

To get to that setting:

Go to settings > System > Power & sleep > Additional power settings (on the right side)

Click “Choose what closing the lid does” (on the left side)

Change the option for “When I close the lid” to “Do nothing” 

Hey there @cr8tor

 

My problem is actually the OPPOSITE of that. My external is my main monitor, has all the windows on it and everything is A-OK.

If I close the laptop and then open it, all of the windows suddenly move to the laptop, despite the external being the primary still.

 

My best guess as to why is that switching from 144hz to 120hz took longer than it took for the laptop to make itself presentable, so Windows decided to move everything to the laptop instead. Once I set it so that "Mirror These Displays/Extend These Displays" had 144hz as well as "Second Screen Only" (which is my preferred setup, I only open the laptop when gaming to dissipate some extra heat), it stopped 'flashing' and so it just didn't move the windows.

[cr8tor]

Ahhh i missunderstood you.

 

So, if this is a dell there is a function key combo button that affects this also. (little blue icons, top row of the laptop keyboard)

It tells the computer your preferred setup for the monitors.

But if you got it to cooperate, then that works too.

[Hyatice]

I've got a Lenovo, though my work laptop is a Dell and I may run into a similar issue whenever I finally decide that I'm tired of looking at a 12" screen while working and plug it in to my existing setup... I'll definitely give that a shot if I run into issues with it.