chiming in to say that (in addition to another problem, which I wonder if it's related? like one change broke both things maybe?) I'm having this issue too. changing the screen in the UserSettings is an easy fix though. that's actually the *only* way I can change it, the options are there in-game but they don't let me change the display, it doesn't even have any listed lol
Just wanted to let you know that either the latest Nvidia driver update or the latest Windows update seems to have had an impact on the monitor order and as a result the game opened on yet a different monitor. Had to adjust my UserSettings.txt once more to get it back to the correct one.
I made a thread about this as I had no idea this one even existed when I first encountered the issue. I am still having this problem. Keeps opening up on my left or right monitor, never my main one.
I currently have 3 monitors, 2 of them are 1080p and one is a 1440p, it seems to go to the 1080p ones instead. Dx
I switched my other moniter to main and switched moniter 1 and 2 in Windows display settings. Neither adjustment fixed the problem. TESO insists on starting on the smaller moniter.
Switching monitors in Windows only changes where the startup window opens. After I click PLAY the game login only opens on my smaller side monitor. 9 days now and you still haven't found out how to fix this? Since I can't properly turn either my chair or balance my keyboard for the side screen, I'd get a permanent crick in my neck if I tried to play, so I just don't. This is very annoying after so much time has passed!
Same issue here still .... I play in 2 places, home and with my gf where I have a setup with laptop with bigger monitor connected. I reported the issue but got generic answer back telling me to attach files that I already did. changing settings in windows or win+shift+arrow do not work, it only shifts there for a second and flips back to my small laptop screen.
@ZOS_Kevin@ZOS_JessicaFolsom
There is another problem which doesn't detect NVIDIA GPU but the issue looks exactly like here on screenshots that players provided. I do not know if these issues are related, as we all are wondering, but they have something in common. The only difference is that in our case there is no GPU detection besides this monitor/resolution setting disappearance (in our case players don't have multiple monitors or play on laptops.)
Previously, it was mentioned that the issue could not be reproduced. However, I was able to isolate a reproducible trigger.
Key finding
On a hybrid AMD + NVIDIA laptop (no MUX switch): With AMD iGPU enabled (default hybrid mode):
• NVIDIA GPU is NOT detected
• DLSS is missing
• Monitor / resolution settings behave incorrectly (similar to reports in this thread) If I disable the AMD iGPU (Device Manager):
• NVIDIA GPU is immediately detected
• DLSS becomes available
• Monitor and resolution behavior returns to normal However, overall visual smoothness and frame pacing are noticeably degraded in this configuration.
Animations appear less fluid and micro-stuttering is present, indicating that this workaround disrupts normal hybrid GPU behavior. Re-enabling AMD iGPU:
• Breaks everything again (GPU detection + display behavior)
Why this is important
This suggests that:
• The issue is not related to monitor configuration itself
• The issue is not related to user settings
• The issue is not caused by drivers (tested with clean DDU install)
The root cause appears to be GPU detection / selection logic in hybrid systems.
Possible explanation
It seems the game incorrectly binds to the integrated GPU and fails to properly initialize or prioritize the NVIDIA GPU when both are present.
This may also explain why monitor and resolution settings behave inconsistently.
Request
Could you please try to reproduce this scenario by:
1. Using a hybrid AMD + NVIDIA system
2. Launching the game in default hybrid mode
3. Then disabling the iGPU and relaunching
This behavior is fully reproducible on my system.
Hope it will help and both groups of players will get a hotfix soon.
Thank you!
Edited by CassandraMurphy on March 27, 2026 11:40PM
Ah, ok, my integrated video card is an Intel card and the one plugged in is an NVIDIA card. The game is only working on the monitor running with the Intel card. Thank you @CassandraMurphy !
They proposed this as a temporary fix: "Workaround: As a temporary workaround, you can change your monitor assignments in the Windows Display Settings, but we recognize this isn't ideal."
But it doesn't even work. I have 3 monitor setup and never had any issues until ESO patch that messed it all up. If I change monitor assignments in windows ESO still keeps jumping between monitors and it does not recognize which monitor is which, so not only it messes on starting on different monitor each time but it also messes up which monitor is 1, 2 or 3.
TESO opened on the correct monitor yesterday for some reason. I thought it was fixed. Today it didn't. Oh well, hopefully the patch on 4/20 will fix it permanently.
Any chance anyone will fix this? I mean come on, there's been updates since you broke it, no one has bothered trying to patch this yet? It's been over a month.
It became worse and weirder not only launching on wrong one, but after recent patch even after taking it to my main screen via windows key+arrow keys, it won't properly detect said monitor, resolution and fullscreen options are gone... Only works well in windowed mode, but I prefer borderless, so right now I use Borderless Gaming app as temporary solution.
The weirdest thing though is that the UI, the arts, backgrounds, all render fine, but the 3d graphic render the actual game, stays on lower 2nd monitor's resolution unless I switch to windowed mode or use borderless gaming software, which is not only ugly, but unplayable as it stretches it on super ultrawide which it wouldn't do before... It got this even more bad after few hours, it was ok only booting on wrong monitor earlier this day, and there were no updates or changes to my pc/game/drivers/windows at all, yet it just got worse mysteriously...
I hope fix will come soon.
Other bug after all ESO updates I would like to share related to this is that after every patch I have to recheck files for DLSS to work, otherwise it would simply be gone of ingame settings and by the way downgrade in quality and version, since I always change to newest via DLSS Swapper and also set to recommended in Nvidia App to override quality/version to be sure. You guys please seriously need to update all your ESO upscalers, even for console folk, it's been over 5 years and still using DLSS 2... Maybe add more...
DirectX12 upgrade won't be needed/wouldn't be better if you tackled that hard task for cross play? Than frame gen and ray/path tracing could be added later as well, I am aware DX upgrade opens up a lot feature possibility and future proofing, so I wondered if there is any relation to cross platform play...
@ZOS_Kevin Any update on this - it's still a very frustrating bug which hasnt been resolved since introduced with the U49 launch..... it's very quiet in here on this issue.