How to Move the System Tray to a Different Screen

I- What Are Multiple Monitors?

Sometimes, one monitor is not enough for you. If you like to multi-task, you may need to keep an eye on more than one window at the same time.

II- How to Setup Multiple Monitors?

If you have already done that and just need to get your sidebar working on another screen – you can skip this part. If not, read on.

First of all, your computer must have multiple display ports (VGA, HDMI, Mini Displayport … etc). You start by connecting both monitors to the computer using the suitable cable for each one and power on your monitors. Good. Now we need to do some setup:

1. Right-click on your desktop and select Display Settings.
2. If you can only see one monitor with number one on it, left-click Detect.
3. In the multiple display list choose Extend these displays.
   
4. Drag the monitors to arrange them as you like.
5. Select one monitor from above and check the Make this my main display box to set your main monitor (if it’s greyed it means the selected monitor is already your main display).
6. Left-click Apply.
7. If everything is okay, left-click Keep changes, otherwise, left-click Revert.

III- How to Move System Tray to a Different Screen?

First of all, the system tray isn’t the same as the taskbar

I myself was confused about this matter and thanks to our dear readers’ comments, I was able to notice the mistake. The distinction is quite simple: you can have multiple taskbars, one on each screen, but Microsoft allows only one system tray which is the group of icons that appear next to your clock… This means the other taskbar will not show any icons next to the clock. I’ll discuss both moving your system tray and your taskbar to another screen in this guide. Also, read about how to fix if the taskbar is not working.

So, let’s begin with moving the system tray to another screen

It’s really a piece of cake… All you need to do is in this 6 seconds video:

Here are the steps from the video in text form:

1. Right-click on any taskbar of yours and unlock your taskbar by clicking on lock taskbar in case its checked.
2. Drag your taskbar (the one that contains the system tray) to the screen you want to show the system tray on.
3. Remember to have your displays in the Extend mode.

Now, let’s talk about the whole taskbar thing

Many of us like to watch a movie in Full screen or play a game while having an eye on the clock or battery (if you are using a laptop of course). So we want it to look like this:

Here’s what you need to do to get that result.

1. First of all, it may look like this (taskbar only on one monitor), and we need to show the taskbar in both monitors:
2. Right-click on your taskbar and select Settings (If you have an older build of Windows 10, it may be called Properties).
3. Scroll-down a little bit until you find the title Multiple displays.
4. Turn on Show taskbar on all displays.
5. Choose the visibility of the taskbar buttons from Show taskbar buttons on. You can make them only visible in All taskbars, Main taskbar, and taskbar where windows is open or Taskbar where windows is open only. For example, if we choose the show them only in Taskbar where windows is open it will look like this:
6. There is an option list called Combine buttons on other taskbars. Combining buttons makes them look like icons without showing the name of the opened window. If you choose Never from the list, then it will extend all the buttons and show the label of each one (check what happened to the chrome and settings buttons):The other options are:
   Always hide labels which will always shrink the button to an icon without a name, and a When taskbar is full option which shrinks the button to an icon form only if the taskbar is full and there is no place to show the name of each opened window. Read also about The Complete Gadgets Guide for Windows 10.

If you need the taskbar to show up in only one monitor, you should then make this monitor your main display (see step 5 in section II).

Suggested Read: How to set a GIF as a wallpaper in Windows 10

Final Thoughts

We hope this article will help you somehow on how to fix your Windows 10 computer. Did you find this helpful? Or do you have an easier way to do it? Please let us know in the comment section below.

Do you got any other technical questions about your Windows 10 PC? Try visiting our website. You could find a topic that might help you with your concerns. Or you might have a direct question like How to solve the GWXUX.EXE Error and How to Disable Cortana.