What I do know is that you need specific EDID support when using a DisplayPort KVM because that switches the computer away on a regular basis. If you have multiple screens and a single screen KVM (fairly common) it will do the re-arrangement that you've experienced. With EDID support it keeps both output alive resulting in no re-arrangement.
EDIT: It seems the correct term may be "EDID emulation".
Can you tell me some KVM switches that have a working implementation of that feature? I'm looking for one.
I'm still using a DVI KVM, because when I tried to upgrade to Displayport (years ago), I ran into the problem you describe and gave up.
I don't understand in which case the 'act like it's physically disconnected' behaviour would be more desired than what we had with all the standards before.
I have read that some DisplayPort displays do have an option in the settings to disable this behaviour.
But since they’re off, that doesn’t make any sense, now you can’t reach any windows on those monitors. I think the macOS behavior make the most sense, move them so you can access them, but move them back once the display is turned on.
Reminds me of that problem with video driver update on Windows when the screen is momentarily resized down to 1024x768 resolution and then instantly goes back to 2560x1440: all the non-maxed windows get shrunk down and shifted to the upper-left corner (so they would be visible on a 1024x768 screen) and then they just stay like this. It's totally useless and actually quite annoying.
Perhaps I want to turn off the displays to darken the room.
I don't want anything done with the programs/windows except not look at them.
What is stupid is having half your windows unreachable because they are on a monitor that is turned off. How does that help anyone?
Imagine how annoying it would be on a laptop? I use my laptop in a meeting, and have a few windows open on its screen, then I arrive at my desk and plug in my 2 external monitors and keep my laptop lid closed. Imagine if the windows on the laptop display stayed there, they would be unreachable and would have to manually move them to my other screens every time I moved from a meeting to my desk. Same for the other way around, I disconnect from my monitors and take my laptop to a meeting, and then I can’t access any of the dozens of windows I had open on my 2 external monitors.
That would be an absolutely brain dead way of working.
>That would be an absolutely brain dead way of working.
For starters: the experience I want on my laptop is not the same as the experience I want on my desktop. I have two monitors at home, sometimes I like to turn off the wing-monitor when I am watching a movie on the center screen. (To avoid distraction, and also minimize glare, etc.) That doesn't mean I want those windows rearranged: that's probably going to interfere w/ the movie that is playing, fuck up my desktop wallpapers, icons, window sizes, etc. The whole point of turning off the monitor is to hide those distractions.
Also not all window managers suck as badly as Mac OS and Windows. By default I have odd-numbered virtual desktops go to the left montior, and even-numbered virtual desktops go to the right monitor. If I want to move a viewport to another monitor, I renumber it accordingly, and all the windows move to that monitor: complete w/ their proportional positions and sizes.
The idea that _a device hotplug event_ would change how my virtual desktops are laid out is so absurd to me that I switched operating systems to avoid the default Windows behavior. So maybe consider that paradigms and workflows other than "a docked laptop" exist before calling people braindead?
That sounds like a Windows problem.
I agree that when monitor is physically removed, the windows should go back.
But if it is just powered off but still plugged in? I say windows should stay there, just like HDMI did. For example I sometimes turn off monitors for less distractions during regular conversations.. or to save power before leaving.. in this case windows jumping all over the screen are the last thing I want.
I have a cheap laptop that doesn't understand a turned-off monitor as unusable, and it's actually way nicer that way.
And the use case is simple: I have 2 monitors hooked up to my machine but I don't always need 2 monitors. I have a 34" 5k2k ultrawide and a 27" 4k in portrait mode. When I'm coding or using my computer for an extended amount of time I turn both on, but when I just want to quickly write an e-mail I only turn on the main monitor. I mostly use the ultrawide and have the portrait monitor to the side to dump documentation and other materials I need for quick reference on. Right now it's 29ºC in my room and I don't want to turn on more equipment than needed.
Not sure about the reliability of window restoration. It's at least better in the latest macOS than in older versions.
I use it with macOS Ventura and a Windows 11 desktop. It works nicely in conjunction with a Dell Thunderbolt 3 dock to power an LG OLED and support additional accessories. And it has EDID emulation, which is crucial for maintaining consistent display arrangement.
I've tried other DisplayPort KVM switches with mixed success. This is the first one that's worked out of the box.