Launch any application on any monitor, every time. Move live windows instantly.

Windows is notoriously bad at remembering which monitor you want your apps to open on. DisplayWarp is a lightweight system tray utility that fixes this "primary monitor monopoly" by intercepting app launches and forcing them onto the display of your choice.

Quick Start · Building from Source

Screenshots

---

Features

• Profile-Based Launching — Save a per-app rule: pick an EXE and a target monitor, click Launch. DisplayWarp opens the app and moves its window to the right screen automatically.
• Live Window Mover — See all running windows in a dropdown. Pick one and a target monitor, click Move — done instantly, no flicker.
• Visual Monitor Preview — A scaled layout preview shows all your connected displays. The selected target is highlighted green as you edit.
• Window Process Tracking — For launchers that spawn a child process (e.g. Battle.net → game), specify the child EXE name and DisplayWarp will wait for that window instead.
• Persistent Profiles — Profiles are saved to monitor_config.json next to the exe and survive restarts.
• Desktop Shortcut Layouts — Save the exact positions of all desktop icons and shortcuts across your monitors and restore them with one click or directly from the system tray.
• In-App Automatic Updates — Check for new GitHub releases directly in the Settings tab, download updates with progress indicator, and restart seamlessly.
• Zero Dependencies at Runtime — Ships as a single .exe. No runtimes, no installers, no admin rights required for normal use.

---

Quick Start

Create a Launch Profile

1. Click 📁 Select EXE and pick the application executable.
2. Choose the target monitor from the dropdown (the preview highlights it green).
3. (Optional) If the EXE is a launcher that opens a different process (e.g. a game client), fill in the Window process field with the child process name, e.g. Diablo IV.exe.
4. Click 💾 Save Profile.
5. Hit ▶ Launch whenever you want to open the app on that monitor.

Move a Running Window

1. In the 🖥 Move Live Window section, click 🔄 Refresh to list all open windows.
2. Pick the window from the dropdown.
3. Pick the target monitor.
4. Click ▶ Move.

Save & Restore Desktop Shortcut Layouts

1. Click the Shortcuts tab in the top navigation bar.
2. View your live desktop shortcuts, search by name, or check their coordinates across displays.
3. Enter a layout name and click 💾 Save (or hit 📷 Snapshot for an instant timestamped save).
4. Whenever Windows scrambles your icons (after resolution changes or reconnecting displays), click ▶ Restore in the app or directly from the system tray context menu.

---

How It Works

When a profile is launched, DisplayWarp:

1. Spawns the configured executable.
2. Polls for the window to appear (by PID, or by child process name if specified).
3. Repositions and focuses the window on the target monitor.

For the live mover, it issues a direct SetWindowPos call — no aggressive retries, no flickering, single-shot.

---

Building from Source

Requirements: Rust stable toolchain (MSVC target), Windows 10/11.

git clone https://github.com/your-username/DisplayWarp
cd DisplayWarp
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/display_warp.exe. Copy it anywhere you like.

---

Configuration

Profiles are stored as plain JSON in monitor_config.json next to the executable:

{ "profiles": [{ "name": "firefox.exe", "exe_path": "C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe", "target_monitor_name": "\\\\.\\DISPLAY2", "target_monitor_rect": { "left": 1920, "top": 0, "right": 3840, "bottom": 1080 }, "window_process_name": null, "force_primary": false }] }

You can edit this file by hand — changes take effect on next launch.

---

Tech Stack

UI	egui / eframe
System Tray	tray-icon
Win32	windows-rs
Serialization	serde + serde_json
File dialogs	rfd
Icons	egui-phosphor

---

License

MIT

*Maintained with ❤️ for the PC community.*