How To Prevent Windows 10/11 From Resizing & Relocating Open Windows After Resuming From Sleep

One of the most frustrating things to see when waking your Windows 10 computer from sleep is to see all your open windows resized and relocated in the corner of the screen. I have encountered this issue twice, both times when I removed a graphics card from my PC and used Intel integrated graphics. Whether this is the reason you are encountering the same issue, or it is something completely different, here’s how to ensure it never happens again.

Step one: Launch the Registry Editor as an Administrator.

Go to the search bar in the taskbar or click the search icon if you have configured your Windows 10 taskbar search to appear as an icon instead of a search bar. Next, type in the following word: regedit. You’ll see Registry Editor as an app option. Right click it and choose “Run as Administrator”.

Then click “Yes” allow it access to make changes to your machine.

Step two: Navigate to the Graphics Drivers Configuration tree.

If you have the Creator’s update, you can simply copy and paste the following key into the address bar of the Registry Editor. If not, navigate to it manually.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration

Step three: Adjust horizontal and vertical values within the Graphics Drivers Configuration tree.

Once you’re there, look for the entries below. They will look like long strings of letters followed by numbers and symbols. My system has a whopping 13 entries.

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration entry list on my computer.

Under each entry is a tree labeled “00”. The four DWORD values we care about are ActiveSurfSize.cx, ActiveSurfSize.cy, PrimSurfSize.cx and PrimSurftSize.cy.

Looking in the second “00” tree. There are four values to adjust here.

On my computer, under the first “00” tree, you will see the PrimSurfSize.cx and PrimSurftSize.cy values.

The first “00” tree only has two values to adjust.

Open each one by double-clicking the DWORD value and switch the Base from Hexadecimal to Decimal.

Then adjust the X and Y values to match your monitor’s resolution.

My monitor is a 38” ultrawide with a resolution of 3840 x 1600 pixels so here is what I set the DWORD values to:

ActiveSurfSize.cx – 3840

ActiveSurfSize.cy – 1600

PrimSurfSize.cx – 3840

PrimSurftSize.cy – 1600

Repeat this process for every entry. Remember to look in both “00” trees under each entry.

Remember to adjust the DWORD values for every “00” tree under each entry. I had 13 entries and therefore 26 “00” trees to investigate and adjust.

That is it, at least for me it was. I restarted and next time my monitor or computer went to sleep, and I resumed it, every window was exactly where I left it. Hope this help other Windows 10 users in the same situation eliminate the frustration of postage stamp sized windows every time you come back to your computer!