Windows – How to swap primary and secondary display during an RDP session

multiple-monitorsremote desktopvirtual machinewindows

I have two displays on my desktop (Windows 10 Enterprise) and frequently connect to a VM (Windows 8 Pro) via remote desktop. I have checked "Use all my monitors for the remote session" so the display is extended across both screens. This is all fine.

However, when I work from home and RDP in to my desktop and then on to the VM, my screens are reversed. As it's a remote session, I can't change this.

My question is: how to I get screen 1 on the left and screen 2 on the right? It's a VM, so I can only connect to it via RDP.

I have searched for an answer already, but all the answers I found concerned editing the RDP file so the session starts full screen and/or on the correct screen on my desktop. I don't think it's an RDP issue, I need to change the settings in the VM OS somehow.

It's a minor annoyance, but I prefer to have Visual Studio on the left screen and browser on the right. I can drag them over each time I log on, but I'd rather swap the displays on the VM so I don't have to.

Best Answer

This is working to me:

edit saved *.rdp file
swap screen numbers in selectedmonitors
save & run

In my case I had:

 selectedmonitors:s:0,1

Ive changed it to:

 selectedmonitors:s:1,0

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Actually, there was misconfiguration of Power Options. The power plan was configured to never turn off display if plugged in.

Changing this to "10 minutes" solved the problem, display powers off in 10 minutes even if RDP-connected.

Path: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings\

Windows – How to keep an RDP session alive

The following script uses the free AutoHotkey.

The script checks every 10 minutes (600000 milliseconds) for computer inactivity. It then searches for all Remote Desktop windows by title, and for each it will set the RDP window to be the active window and will send it a click in the middle of its screen and for good measure the Enter key.

SetTitleMatchMode, 2
Loop
{
    if A_TimeIdle >= 600000
    {
        WinGet, id, List, Remote Desktop Connection
        Loop, %id%
        {
            this_id := id%A_Index%
            WinGetTitle, this_title, ahk_id %this_id%
            TrayTip, Found RDP session, %this_title%, 2, 17
            ControlSend , , {Enter}, ahk_id %this_id%
        }
    }
    Sleep, 600000
}
return

This script was tested on a Windows 10 computer with RDP to a Windows 10 VM. For some unknown reason, AutoHotkey is unable to re-minimize the RDP window and re-activate the previously active window, so RDP stays active.

After installing AutoHotKey, put the above text in a .ahk file and double-click it to test. You may stop the script by right-click on the green H icon in the traybar and choosing Exit. To have it run on login, place it in the Startup group at C:\Users\USER-NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

Best Answer

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