KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 ― Many of us — this writer included — regularly use multiple monitors on the same machine. It genuinely improves my workflow, and it’s one of the best investments I’ve made to my work-from-home setup as the professional world gravitates towards remote working. However, Windows 10 users are probably familiar with this particular bug — one that rearranges app windows whenever your laptop goes to sleep.
Basically, when your PC is connected to external monitors over a DisplayPort connector, and your device goes to sleep, your apps are then moved to different locations when you wake your machine up. Microsoft explains that this issue is technically called the “Rapid Hot Plug Detect (RPD)”, which results in “unwanted desktop arrangements”.
There have been workarounds of sorts, although personally, I just manually rearrange my apps whenever I “wake” my PC up. Regardless, it’s something that has been annoying users for awhile now, and Microsoft is finally releasing an update that will fix this — thankfully, for millions (or billions) of users everywhere (as first reported by The Verge).
The fix is limited to the Windows Insider Program for now, as per Microsoft’s developer blog, with the “feature” included on build 21287 or above. If you’re already on the build, the fix is automatically on by default. If you aren’t sure what build number your Windows runs, open the Settings app, head to System, click About, and look under Windows specifications and OS build.
We do expect to see this become available in an official update expected sometime in October of this year, so you might have to be a little patient — unless you’re willing to go for the Windows Insider Program, which is basically the beta program. If you do run the compatible build, Microsoft is looking for feedback on the new “feature”, which you can submit here. ― SoyaCincau
