Win11, 3 displays setup, icons stay on the laptops monitor, although other display is main.

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Win11, 3 displays setup, icons stay on the laptops monitor, although other display is main.

C A SRSCH 20

Hi,

I was just upgraded from win10 to win11.

I have 3 monitors, they are identified in that order 3, 2,1, where 3 and 2 I have in front of me, connected through docking station and number 1 is laptops display on the right side.

I'm more in front of display 3 which I have set as main. In win10 all icons from the desktop there were displayed on it, whenever I connected my laptop to docking station.

After upgrade to win10, I have set again display 3 as main display, icons stay on display 1, unless I close the laptop, then icons move to display 3, but I cannot use display 1 anymore...

I don't see any other option which I should use to fix it... in win10 it worked fine...

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Answer 1

Hello,

I’ve found this behavior quite common in Windows 11, especially after an upgrade, its sometimes misinterprets the default display settings causing desktop icons to appear on the wrong screen even when an external monitor is set as the main display.

In this case, you can try the troubleshooting steps below to see if they resolve the issue.

Step 1: Verify display settings

Right-click on the desktop and select Display settings.

Ensure Display 3 is set as the Main display (check the box "Make this my main display").

Arrange the monitors in the display layout to match their physical positioning (e.g., if Display 3 is on the left, drag it to the left in the settings).

Step 2: Reset icon layout

Windows often retains icon positions based on previous display configurations. To refresh this:

Temporarily disable Display 1 (your laptop screen) in Display settings.

Verify that all desktop icons move to Display 3.

Reenable Display 1. This should help Windows prioritize Display 3 for icon placement.

Step 3: Restart to apply changes

After adjusting these settings, log out or restart your PC to ensure Windows applies the changes correctly.

Hope this helps!

C A SRSCH 20 Reputation points

2025-08-27T06:45:44.6033333+00:00

Thank you Beatrix. I did all 3 steps couple of times, but maybe not in that order. At some point I disabled taskbar on screen 1 and 2 leaving it just at screen 3 which is set as main screen, eventualy it works now correctly with the icons.

What is not working as in windows 10 is that although screen 3 is set as main, still apps open in the laptop screen and I have to drag it from screen 1 to screen 3 which is annoying and in windows 10 it wasn't like that.

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Win11, 3 displays setup, icons stay on the laptops monitor, although other display is main.

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