18

I have a dual screen set-up. I'm running windows 8.1. I have had this issue with Management studio 2008 R2, 2012 and 2014.

If I drag the management studio screen across to my 2nd display, and then close it down, when I open it again, it opens on the 2nd display. This is what I would expect. Unfortunately, the connect to server dialogue box is hidden from view and the main screen remains out of focus. It remains unresposive, waiting for the dialog that can't be found. I have tried ctrl-alt-tab and ctrl-alt-esc to find it but to no avail.

The only way I can sort it is to kill off the process. switch to single screen and then open it.

Does anyone know of a fix for this behaviour. Its really frustrating.

8 Answers8

31

I have found the answer on the server fault site:

https://serverfault.com/a/491235/171795

Unfortunately I can't vote the guy up (https://serverfault.com/users/166318/eirik-toft) as I don't have any reputation on that site (or this site that my question got migrated too) However, I thought I would leave this answer here as a signpost to his answer.

To work around the issue I 'alt-tab' to select the main sql window. Then 'alt-space' to get the context menu then 'm' to select move, then I used the arrow keys to brings the hidden dialogue box into view.

Community
  • 1
5

It might be a bit late for this but I suffered from the same problem. Happens to me when I close it on the second monitor with it attached at the corner. The simple solution to me was to just hitting escape with the focus being on the Manager. That closes the dialog so you can control the manager again. Then move it to the main monitor and try to connect. A lot simpler then trying to move the dialog into focus.

Rodnale
  • 51
1

Thanks for the answers here guys!

It helped me to find a permanent solution when using a dual screen setup.

After you've managed to get the Object Explorer back on the screen you can close it and configure Management Studio (2014) to not open it automatically during startup. This will prevent the phenomenon from occurring when Management Studio is set to open on your secondary screen automatically.

Do so by going to Tools > Options > Environment > Startup

For the option "At startup:" select "Open empty environment", click "OK" and you're rid of this annoyance. :-)

Stephen
  • 11
0

Other solutions were not working for me, as I just couldn't get the window to show up.

However, if you press "enter" right after you start it up, you are pressing "enter" on the connection window which is in focus (but off screen) and it will re-connect to your last entry.

So at least if your last is valid, this is a temporary workaround.

Stephen Cook
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0

I was able to fix the issue of the dialog being out of the screen space by doing the following:

  • Configure my displays so that only one was active
  • Log out of Windows
  • Log back in and open SQL Management Studio
  • Restore the multi-monitor configuration

I also tried the old trick of using the windows key with arrow keys to try and move the dialog to another screen but that doesn't work in this case.

Nobby
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0

You may simply "Lock the screen" (Win-L) then login back to the Windows, you should see the dialog box appears. It is definitely a problem with more than one screen in which any one of them is not set to the same level (not aligned to (0,0)) therefore the dialog box is hidden.

Tony Chan
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-1

In my case, "Run as Administrator" option worked like charm. I was accessing my server screen with the windows RDP. And when I open SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio 2010 user hangs at the moment and wont operate unless sign off r disconnected by administrator.

But when I set compatibility mode of both the application to the "run as Administrator", it starts working fine.

Manoj jagadale
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-1

change resolution of the display to make the screen where SSMS is currently frozen the main screen. This will unfreeze SSMS

Lisa
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