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Windows seems to assign numbers to displays according to some hidden rules (perhaps something hardware or driver-specific). Using multiple displays through RDP seems to work well (ie. without messing up all your window positions) only if your display layout, size, and display numbers all match correctly. Display layout is easy to alter, but display numbers are not. I have two systems with the same display sizes and layouts, but the display numbers (as seen in the Display Settings dialog) are not the same and I can't seem to get them to be the same. One of the displays is 4K, and as a result, I can't just rearrange which displays are connected to which ports (can't do 4K through DVI!). Is there some way to tell Windows to renumber the displays, perhaps through a registry setting so that I can get multi-display RDP to work between these two systems?

Note that this isn't a question about whether or not RDP will "work" or whether or not the windows can be arranged a certain way. RDP has for many years "worked" with multiple displays. The issue is that when using RDP in this configuration, unless your display numbers, layout, and resolutions match exactly, when you log into your remote system, most of the windows will rearrange themselves to a new seemingly random display. If you have a lot of windows (as I do), this can take several minutes to correct, making the use of RDP a much less appealing solution, because when you return to the desktop you've RDPed into, of course it will perform the reverse rearrangement of windows and screw everything up again. I'm not too keen on resetting the positions of all my windows every time I log in, so this is really annoying behavior.

For example, my first system has displays 1, 2, and 3, with 1 being 4K and the other two being 1080x1920, with the two smaller displays being physically positioned to either side of the larger 4K display. The second system has displays 1, 2, and 3, with 3 being 4K and the other two being 1080x1920, set up with the same physical layout. Every time I RDP from one to the other, the windows on display 1 stay on display 1, the windows on display 2 stay on display 2, and the windows on display 3 stay on display 3, even though only display 2 has a matching resolution, and none of their logical positions match. The "main" display is the 4K one in both cases.

This sad state of affairs can only be explained by the developers at Microsoft not using their product at all, or using completely uniform hardware for their testing, which is totally unrealistic.

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  • The number Windows assigns to the display has precisely nothing to do with whether or not you can arrange displays in a given way. Also, the resolution of the display has precisely nothing to do with how you can lay out the screens. Could you perhaps edit this question to make it more clear what you are asking? Focus on your symptoms and desired outcome, and less on the resolution and display numbers. Dec 22, 2019 at 1:48
  • Is this an issue with having the wrong display marked as your main display? (For windows to open on, tabbar to be displayed on etc.) Because the number assigned to your display indicates which monitor has priority, but not much else. Please reword your question because it's hard to understand what you're asking.
    – Aaron
    Dec 22, 2019 at 4:38
  • question updated with specific scenario and more details
    – James
    Dec 23, 2019 at 16:58

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