Deafmetal1

Join Date 12/2025

Start11 & Taskbar Issues on Nvidia Surround Triple Monitor Setup

I have been using triple 27" monitors (and Start10/11) for years and use Nvidia Surround to group them into one widescreen monitor for gaming. I used Start11 Taskbar enhance OFF.

I prefer my Taskbar at the bottom of my left-most monitor, NOT across the bottom of all screens. Some games I play fullscreen on the triples, some just on the center screen so I can multitask with the left/right monitors. So I don't like the Taskbar on the Middle/Right screens so the apps/games I use have the whole screen area to cleanly use.

Funny enough, Start10 and Start 11 have always forced the taskbar onto the left-most screen (which I liked!). To do that, I had to restart Windows Explorer after re-installing/updating Nvidia drivers. But it would send the taskbar to the top of the left-most monitor. I'd have to either re-log or reboot to park it back down below. (re-starting Explorer doesn't help, it stays stuck/parked/ and sometimes glitched up top/left)

However, on random start-ups or reboots, the Taskbar would stretch back across all 3 monitors. If I re-log it jumps back to bottom-left monitor like usual/preferred. Frustrating, but doable. In a perfect world, it would stay put on the bottom left monitor, every time, without fail and without re-logging... but we're not there yet, at least while using Surround.

However, my use-case just got more complicated... I just upgraded to 32" monitors with a much higher resolution. It made the taskbar icons and text toooo tiny. I have tried combinations of Windows scaling and Start11 Taskbar Enhance ON settings, but neither work properly now. If I use windows scaling to, say, 150%, it stretches the Taskbar the extra 50% too!...lol so it stretches out into the middle of the middle monitor! If I use Start11 Enhance options only, it kinda works, but the Tray Icons & Text are still tiny.

The Start11 Taskbar Align Left Experimental feature is glitched bad, and does not work on my machine. Can't even see/use the taskbar, and it bounces around my screen!?

I just want my Taskbar down low, and left monitor only, with the ability to scale the icons, text, and tray icons, date/time text larger.

WinVer: Win 11 Pro, v25H2 (OS Build 26200.7309)

Nvidia Driver Version (ASUS RTX 5090 Astral OC): 591.44 DCH

Start11 Ver: 2.56

Thank you!

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Hello,
I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience. Thank you.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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sdRohan

Join Date 10/2012

+750

I just want my Taskbar down low, and left monitor only, with the ability to scale the icons, text, and tray icons, date/time text larger.

But you are using a 3rd party app (NVidia surround) that fundamentally changes how your monitors and taskbar render.

If surround it not being used, does Start11 function as expected? I am not saying we wont look into it with it running, I just need to establish a basline.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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Quoting sdRohan,

reply 2

But you are using a 3rd party app (NVidia surround) that fundamentally changes how your monitors and taskbar render.

As an inherent function of the Nvidia Drivers, yes.

Quoting sdRohan,

reply 2

If surround is not being used, does Start11 function as expected?

With Surround off, yes, Start11 functions as expected. However, used in concert with Windows scaling, as Start11 options do not seem to affect the tray icons or date/time text size.

Cheers

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sdRohan

Join Date 10/2012

+750

Quoting Deafmetal1,

reply 3

As an inherent function of the Nvidia Drivers, yes.

Your drivers would function perfectly well without Surround.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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I'm not here to pick a fight, I love your products and have been using them for many years. However, I disagree with assessment of the utility of official driver-level Surround and how games utilize it with best function of fullscreen resources. I believe there is a use-case there/here that would merit the effort if the driver or Windows API supports it. If Stardock officially doesn't think so, then so be it. Us triple-screeners are seeking an easier method to fully utilize them. Thank you

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sdRohan

Join Date 10/2012

+750

Quoting Deafmetal1,

reply 5

There was no offence given or perceived - I was just pointing out that if surround was not enabled, your drivers would work perfectly well.

When NVIDIA Surround is enabled on a triple-monitor setup, the GPU driver creates a single large “combined” display internally. Windows now sees one wide display instead of three separate ones. That changes how Windows and the driver determine:

Where the taskbar should be placed
Where the primary screen is
How display IDs are enumerated

In normal multi-monitor, Windows uses its own display ordering to decide where the taskbar appears. With Surround that breaks because NVIDIA overrides that and treats all three as one spanned display, and Windows no longer has the usual “monitor 1 / monitor 2 / monitor 3” context.

This results in the common symptoms people report:

-Taskbar appears on the left monitor instead of center
-Taskbar spans the entire joined display
-Start menu opens on a different physical monitor than expected
-Behavior changes after driver updates or reboots

That all said, the lead developer has been made aware of your concerns and we will look into it.

Thanks for the feedback.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

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