Affinity Suite 2.5.X Oddity on Dual Monitor Displays

[Ronald N. Tan]

Hi Folks Affinity Family,

Newest member. I upgraded to the Universal License from the previous Affinity Publisher 1.X.X.

I am experiencing this oddity, where if affects the entire Affinity Suite.

• My Windows 11 Home is the latest stable build with all patches and fixes installed up-to-date.
• I don't have any other softwares installed other than Windows, Adobe CC, Capture One, etc. Only the the essential work applications. No games or any other software(s) installed.
• My nVIDIA drivers are the Studio Version and latest stable installed.
• I've tried disabling the OpenCL and it does NOT appear to alleviate the peculiarity.

In my screenshot is my dual monitor setup.

Left is my main screen and right is for palettes and panels. If you look at my screenshot, they are reversed. The main application window of Affinity App (either Photo, Designer, or Publisher) switches.

I have made a Studio Preset, where the main app is the left and all my panels are on the right. Even if I reset the Studio, it turns to the default. As soon as I click on my preset I've made, it does the switched.

Does this make sense?

To fix it, I would have to manually switch and resize windows and making sure the main application is moved to the left side. Then moving all the palettes to the right side on the 2nd monitor/display.

I would then save this as a preset, overriding the old name.

Everything seems to be OK until I switch off my PC and restart.

This is the WACKY part. This oddity is not always reproducible. It seems and appears random launches of the applications.

[Ron P.]

I see what you mean. I have a Studio preset for my Dual Monitor setup. Wasn't until reading your post, that I decided to experiment. My preset seemed to stay intact, UNTIL, i messed with the Dual Monitor settings in Windows>System.

I changed which of the 2 monitors I wanted to be my Primary. Then relaunched, in my case, Affinity Photo, and the Preset showed that I had not changed it. In other words those panels I wanted to be on my secondary monitor were still there, and my main components still on my previous Main monitor. So I closed Affinity Photo, then relaunched, this time it seen the change and launched accordingly. However I could repeat this, and the components would change.

Like I said, I have not encountered the issue until I messed with changing in Windows which monitor I wanted to be my Main monitor.

[Ronald N. Tan]

5 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

I see what you mean. I have a Studio preset for my Dual Monitor setup. Wasn't until reading your post, that I decided to experiment. My preset seemed to stay intact, UNTIL, i messed with the Dual Monitor settings in Windows>System.

I changed which of the 2 monitors I wanted to be my Primary. Then relaunched, in my case, Affinity Photo, and the Preset showed that I had not changed it. In other words those panels I wanted to be on my secondary monitor were still there, and my main components still on my previous Main monitor. So I closed Affinity Photo, then relaunched, this time it seen the change and launched accordingly. However I could repeat this, and the components would change.

Like I said, I have not encountered the issue until I messed with changing in Windows which monitor I wanted to be my Main monitor.

This is getting weird. I included the screenshot taken a few minutes ago. This is what my Photo screenshot looks like.

You can see on the left, that I am viewing our exchange. The panels I've saved for Photo appears on the left side (main), while the main Photo window shows up on the right (2nd display).

When I looked at my Display settings within Windows, it correctly identifies which is which. The left monitor is shown "1" as the main display selected. The right monitor has "2" (secondary) designation.

This "randomness" more than likely happens after the PC has either restarted (reboot) or turned off and turned back on.

Here are helpful hints if anyone tries to duplicate this oddity.

• If I reset the Studio for the Affinity application—this affects all Photo, Designer, and Publisher, invoking the Studio Preset once the application windows are manually positioned, the oddity is such that the palettes which were intended to appear on the second monitor still shows up on the primary display. Refer to the second screenshot in which you can see the Windows wallpaper on the right monitor. On the left main one, you can see both Photo window is underneath the two panels. Those two panels are supposed to show up on the right (2nd monitor).
• Additionally, once the windows are manually positioned, exiting the application and restarting remembers everything.
• The oddity happens when I select the Studio Preset and everything is wonky again.

[Ronald N. Tan]

If anyone is experiencing this oddity, please let Serif know.

I made a short (~2 minutes and 18 seconds) video of the oddity.

Even after I manually position to fix things, the moment I invoke my saved Studio Preset, the oddity persists.

Somehow, the monitor position for palettes defaults to "1" or Primary Display.

[Callum]

Hi Ronald N Tan,

I have been trying to replicate this issue with one of my colleagues and we aren't having much luck unfortunately. When this issue occurs have you changed the monitor order in your OS settings at all? Please could you also confirm if your monitor order in the Nvidia control panel matches the order shown in your OS settings?

Thanks
C

[Ronald N. Tan]

4 hours ago, Callum said:

Hi Ronald N Tan,

I have been trying to replicate this issue with one of my colleagues and we aren't having much luck unfortunately. When this issue occurs have you changed the monitor order in your OS settings at all? Please could you also confirm if your monitor order in the Nvidia control panel matches the order shown in your OS settings?

Thanks
C

Hi @Callum,

Thank you for circling back. Since the oddity is "random," I uninstalled the software components of Intel GPU drivers that.

My PC has nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti installed along with the in-built intel GPU.

My main monitor is connected to the nVIDIA port in the back and my 2nd display is connected to the inbuilt Intel GPU port in the back.

Because I did NOT install the Intel softwares ARC and Xe  and only installed the drivers, I no longer experience the oddity I reported.

I included my screen shot of my monitors in the correct order.

Left is ID'ed as 1 (main display).

Right is ID'ed as 2 (secondary display).

Right screenshot contain screenshot of nVIDIA setting. Because only my main (1) is in the port for nVIDIA, there is only a single screen showing.

On the left screenshot is the Display settings in my Windows 11 CP. The screens are ID'ed correctly in the order of placement on my desk.

[Ronald N. Tan]

UPDATE: March 17, 2025

This oddity strikes again. Since my last post, nothing has changed in regard to hardware, placement of my screens, and software installation.

The only change was an update to the Affinity Suite of Applications to the current 2.6.0.