Controlling which screen is default for a program

I typically like to have a large amount of screen real estate – the more the merrier. To do so, I run a pretty large 23″ monitor (an Apple one in this case). Sometimes it is beneficial to have a second monitor as well running side by side, so I can have content on both, or one program running on one monitor and one on the other.

Usually, a program will open on the default monitor, but sometimes it would be better opening on the second. Also, and the reason for this post, the program seems to only open on the alternate monitor, requiring me to drag it over to my main one, and the normal tricks to prevent this were not working.

If you close a program while it is on the alternate monitor, it normally remembers both where it was, and the size it was the last time it was closed, so will default to that. What was happening in this case, is that despite everything that I tried, it wasn’t! Until I realised what I had done.

While the program was on the alternate monitor, I had maximised it, and the program had then become ‘locked’ to that monitor. By turning maximise off, and manually resizing it to the required dimensions and positioning it where required, it regained the ability to remember my preferences.

Of course, down track I will forget this again and will try to work out what I’ve done, but hopefully next time Google will give me this post and provide me with my own solution!!