Hello,
Did some googling and this app was recommended to fix an issue. I have my Primary Monitor above my Gaming Monitor. I would like Steam games (especially Skyrim) to open Fullscreen mode on my Gaming Monitor. Will DisplayFusion allow this? And if so, is there a guide or how-to on how to set it up?

I do not want to make my Gaming Monitor my Primary in Windows Settings.

Here's some highly detailed ASCII drawings.
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|Primary Monitor|
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|Gaming Monitor |
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Thank you!

Hi Owen,

Would it be possible if:

- Steam games are pre-configured by the user to launch in windowed mode
- DisplayFusion watches the Steam process for new child processes (games)
- DisplayFusion moves them to target monitor, sets as borderless window

I understand step #2 might not be a feature yet, but it would be convenient to see something such as this be implemented — the user choosing a parent process to configure how its children are handled.

Thanks!

Goodness, I had to log in and reply because the answers given by Owen are very wrong indeed.

Some (not many though) games allow you to specify which monitor to run it on. And some games (often ones written in Unity) will run on the first enumerated monitor, regardless of whether it is a primary monitor or not.

Display Fusion will allow you to move a window from one monitor to another. The default keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Win + X (though you can change this). There can be a problem with this in that some fullscreen applications don't like being moved, though most of them are surprisingly fine with it.

But you're asking if there's a way to make games open on the secondary monitor by default. That's harder. It's not supposed to be possible, but there is a way. Start Steam in Big Picture mode and open the settings. If you go down to the display settings, you'll see that you can set a target monitor. Set it to your secondary and now games will start on there without you having to muck around with changing the primary monitor. I've attached a screenshot.

I get so incensed when people chime in on a topic to say things are impossible, when really they mean they don't know how.

I appreciate that English isn't your first language, but you ought to be careful when using absolutes. When you say that it isn't possible, you're not just suggesting that Display Fusion might not be able to do it at the moment, but stating that it cannot be done at all. You may well have put off the original enquirer with your blanket statement.

Being mistaken is where you make an error by accident - you said one thing when you meant another. Stating absolutely that something is not possible isn't being mistaken - that's being wrong. There is a difference. I appreciate you're trying to answer as many posts as you can (and doing a better job than anyone else). I'm just saying that you ought to be careful in how you phrase things.

Display Fusion is capable of switching fullscreen programs between monitors. Steam is capable of starting games on selected monitors. So clearly it is possible to program this. It is a function Display Fusion could have, but doesn't at the moment. It might even be possible to use the Steam API via a macro to do this without having to add anything to Display Fusion. The Steam Big Picture feature doesn't just seem viable, it actually works. I'd suggest you go and try it for yourself to confirm that it does. This is going to come up again. I searched around for the article that the original poster was referring to, which directed him to Display Fusion. And it does indeed say that Display fusion will do this, but without any detail.

I've been working on figuring this out also, fast-forward a year and a half or so from when this was posted. But not knowing where Display Fusion was back then, I will say that yes, now, absolutely.

It is more than possible to make any application launch on any monitor - and anywhere on the monitor, fullscreen or windowed. Or all apps can essentially be made to do this simultaneously... and, do you want a certain app to do something when another one is opened, no problem... as well as many, many other things.

At least this is what I'm reading from multiple sources, I just haven't quite figured it all out yet... but I'm working on it and am close to getting what I need done.

So instead of me trying to explain something I don't understand yet, here are two links that should be helpful:

This is the one I found first which has helped me understand how it works:

Launching and Positioning an Application on Startup

This one I just stumbled upon and haven't looked through it, but it's officially put out by Display Fusion so I assume it's pretty good:

Working with Triggers

I went the easy-button-mode solution for this problem, especially since a lot of my Steam games are older and completely clueless about multi-monitors.
I have defined monitor profiles on my 3-monitor system.

Hotkey=Win+F2 : 2-screen work (i share #3 with my work pc, so this disables it)
Hotkey=Win+F3 : 3-screen normal (where my center monitor is primary monitor)
Hotkey=Win+F4 : 3-screen gaming (where my 32" right monitor is primary monitor)

I can simply just hit the hot-key to switch to gaming mode, click OK on the DFusion "are you sure" dialog box, and then start my game. I agree this is not the most robust solution, but slapping a hotkey when I want to play a game is simpler than fiddling with trying to force game X Y Z to behave on a certain monitor.