How to 'anchor' an application to a specific monitor in a multi-monitor arrangement

Question

None of the related questions look to be what I'm trying to ask, so here goes:

I'm using XP with two monitors. I want to force certain applications to always open onto either the left or right monitor, based on where I'd like them to live.

The default behavior is to open the application on the default monitor, and then to manually reposition it to the secondary screen.

Is there a way around this?

Solution 1

The default behavior is to open the application on the default monitor, and then to manually reposition it to the secondary screen.

In my experience this is not the case. Applications tend to remember where they were positioned. Such applications will open on the non-primary monitor unless they have specific monitor aware code to block this.

OTOH an application that does not record its position will open each time as the first time it opened.

Solution 2

I don't know of any Windows internal mechanism to ensure this. But there is software from ISVs that can achieve this.

Have a look at UltraMon, for example.

Comments

[Gnoupi]

I have experience of same (especially ones which remember being on the secondary monitor when I have only one plugged..). Though it's linked to each application, not every of them remembers its position.

[David Yates]

if that's the case, how do you know if an application will remember where it was and load there again properly?

[dertoni]

well, open the program. move it to a position on a screen. close the program. reopen it and it it's in the same position you closed it, it's pretty sure to say it remembers. that would be the simplest way.

[David Yates]

that's a reasonable approach :) ... i guess I was looking for something a little less obvious :)

[David Yates]

for now, this is what I'm going with. Thanks :)

[David Yates]

I can't use this at $WORK, but will at home - thanks :)