How to disable Automatic Monitor Detection in Windows 8.1?

Ever wondered how you can disable the automatic monitor detection in Windows 7 or Windows 8.1? You might need to do so if your laptop has a bug like an Acer Aspire V5 laptop I owned which continously keeps thinking I connected an external monitor and thus changing my current resolution to a lower resolution which gives me black borders on the side and a wrong resolution.

That kept happening randomly no matter what driver I tried it keeps going on and off so the only solution was to disable the automatic monitor detection altogether.

To do this:

1) Press the Windows + R button to get the Run Dialogue Box

2) Type regedit then press Enter

3) Navigate to the following key, if you don't have it, create it at that location:

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TMM

4) Look for the value " UseIViewHelper" and change it to 0 or if you don't have that key (Windows 8.1) then simply right click in the TMM subkey and create a new DWORD giving it the name UseIViewHelper then set its value to 0

For an easier way to do this, just download this reg file and double click on it: Disable Automatic Monitor Detection

Note: To re-enable Automatic Monitor Detection, simply go back to the same reg key and change the value of "UseIViewHelper" to 1

 

I now it's a necro... but I'm having the same problem, with the screen flickering on and off... no idea how to disable this in windows 8.1

The computer keeps detecting and undetecting multiple monitors and then undetecting it, causing flickers.

 

I edited the original post with the correct instructions

 

Hi Matrix Leader,

Thanks for the quick reply! However disabling the auto detect via registry didn't fix my issue... the screen still flickers and detects multiple displays, and then undetects it; causing the screen to rapidly change resolutions. This happens every 2-3 secs.

I found that after uninstalling all graphic drivers, the issue goes away, I think it may be because the graphic drivers are handling the screen detection. Am I wrong to assume this? Another observation is that if I connect my laptop to a monitor with the driver installed, the issue goes away - it correctly detects two displays, without any flickering. However, the moment I remove the VGA cable, the issue returns.

I tried reinstalling the "factory drivers" for display, but the issue persists.

I contacted the customer care for Lenovo, but they were very unhelpful and insisted it was an OS issue as uninstalling the drivers removes the flickering. However the issue is also present in the Ubuntu OS I have had installed. They claim that since this is an OS issue, it's not covered under the warranty (got the laptop only 10 days ago) they then disconnected the call after asking me to hold for a while.

I'm going to go check out a lenovo service center tomorrow and hopefully they'll be able to fix the issue somehow. Otherwise it'd be a lot of money down the drain.

PS : If you have any other ideas on how to solve this... I'd be very grateful!

 

It's a faulty motherboard that's what I had to change on my old acer. The hdmi port is faulty causing these random detection of a second monitor even though u didn't connect one which in turn causes the flickering