ScreenShift

Your laptop screen is partly dead? Put the whole Windows desktop back on the part that still works.

A tiny tool, free for personal use, that moves and fits the entire desktop (wallpaper, icons, Start button, taskbar) into the working area of a damaged panel. No drivers. No installer. One 24 KB file, in English and Russian.

Download · Русский · How it works · FAQ

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The problem

A cracked corner, a failing display cable, a MacBook with the infamous "flexgate" dead strip, a panel that went black on one side. The laptop still works, but the edge of the picture is gone, and with it the Start button, the leftmost desktop icons and half of every maximized window.

Windows has no setting for "this part of my screen is dead". Moving windows around doesn't help, because the taskbar and the desktop still sit under the dead strip.

The fix

ScreenShift asks Windows' display stack to draw the desktop inside a smaller rectangle of the panel. Everything is moved together, so nothing hides under the dead area. The dead strips simply stay black.

• Everything fits. Taskbar, Start button, icons, maximized windows.
• Calibrate in 30 seconds. Move four yellow lines with the arrow keys until they touch the dead strip.
• Safe by design. After applying, you have 20 seconds to press Keep. Do nothing and the old picture comes back on its own.
• Remembers your setup. Re-apply it any time with ScreenShift.exe --apply.
• Two quality modes. Crisp shows the desktop 1:1 at the largest standard resolution that fits. Fill uses the whole good area and scales the picture slightly.
• English and Russian. The interface follows your Windows language. Force one with --lang=en or --lang=ru.
• Tiny and private. One small exe, no installer, no network access, no telemetry. The code is a single readable C# file.

Quick start

1. Download ScreenShift.exe from the latest release.
2. Run it. A calibration screen opens.
3. Use the arrow keys to move the yellow lines next to the dead strips. The arrows move the left and bottom lines, with Ctrl held they move the right and top ones. Hold Shift to move faster.
4. Press Tab to choose Crisp or Fill, then Enter to apply.
5. Press Keep within 20 seconds. Done.

_{The calibration screen (rendered by the program itself, shown at half size). Yellow lines are the new edges of the picture.}

Windows may show a SmartScreen warning because the exe is not code-signed. See Trust and verification.

Commands

Command	What it does
ScreenShift.exe	Open calibration. Enter applies, R removes the shift, Esc exits.
ScreenShift.exe --apply	Re-apply the saved shift without asking. Handy for startup.
ScreenShift.exe --reset	Remove the shift and delete the saved settings.
--lang=en or --lang=ru	Add to any command to choose the interface language.

Settings are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\ScreenShift\settings.txt as five values: pixels cut on the left, top, right and bottom, and the mode (crisp or fill). Settings saved by version 1.1 and older (left, bottom, mode) still work.

Re-apply after every boot

Windows or the GPU driver can drop the shift after a restart, sleep or driver reset. To restore it automatically, put a shortcut to ScreenShift.exe --apply in your Startup folder (press Win + R, type shell:startup).

How it works

ScreenShift uses the Windows display configuration API (SetDisplayConfig, virtual-mode aware). It keeps the physical panel mode and changes two things:

1. the size of the desktop Windows renders, and
2. the rectangle on the panel where that desktop is shown.

The GPU then scales or places the desktop into that rectangle in hardware. Windows itself believes it has a normal screen, so apps and the taskbar behave as usual. Calibration happens on an overlay that uses real panel pixels, so the lines you see are exactly where the picture will start.

Compatibility

OS	Windows 10 (version 1607 or newer)
Runtime	.NET Framework 4.x, which is already part of Windows 10
Displays	One active display. With an external monitor connected, ScreenShift stops with a message and changes nothing.
Tested on	MacBook Pro (2016) running Windows 10 via Boot Camp, AMD Radeon Pro 460

Support for the virtual display modes depends on the GPU driver. If Windows rejects the mode, ScreenShift tells you and leaves your display unchanged. Reports from other hardware are very welcome, please open an issue.

FAQ

Does this fix the broken screen? No. It is a software workaround that makes a damaged screen usable. The dead strip stays dead. Replace the panel or cable when you can.

Is it safe? Can I get stuck on a black screen? The change is applied as a trial. Without your confirmation it reverts after 20 seconds. If you ever need to undo it manually, run ScreenShift.exe --reset, or just reboot if you never pressed Keep.

Will text look blurry? In Crisp mode the desktop is shown 1:1 at a standard resolution, so text stays sharp. Fill mode scales the picture by a few percent. Use Tab during calibration to compare.

Why not just lower the resolution? A lower resolution is stretched across the whole panel, so the dead strip still eats part of the picture. ScreenShift decides where on the panel the picture goes.

Why not AMD or NVIDIA scaling options? Those usually center the picture, which wastes good pixels on the opposite side, and are often missing for built-in laptop panels. ScreenShift lets you cut each side by exactly the amount you need.

Is it free? Yes, for personal use: you, on your own computer, for your own private purposes. Everything else needs a paid commercial license: companies, freelancers, schools, charities and other organizations, work computers, and any service such as repairing other people's laptops. See License.

Which languages does it speak? English and Russian. ScreenShift picks Russian when Windows is set to Russian and English otherwise. Use --lang=en or --lang=ru to override it. All texts live in one small L.T("ru", "en") table in the source, so adding another language is easy, see Contributing.

Trust and verification

ScreenShift changes display settings, so you should be able to check what you run.

• The whole program is one file: ScreenShift.cs, about 550 lines. It makes no network calls and writes only settings.txt.

• Build it yourself in seconds with the C# compiler that ships with Windows, no SDK needed:

  powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\build.ps1

• The geometry and key checks run against the built exe and never touch your display settings:

  powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\tests\four-edges.ps1

• The release page lists the SHA-256 of the published exe.

• The exe is not code-signed, so SmartScreen may warn on first run. Choose More info, then Run anyway, or build from source.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. By submitting a contribution you agree that it is distributed under the project's license, including the commercial licenses offered by the author. Good first contributions:

• More interface languages (English and Russian are built in)
• Support for multiple displays
• Reports of which GPUs and laptops work
• An optional "start with Windows" switch

License

Personal use	Free. An individual, on their own computer, for their own private purposes, under the ScreenShift Personal Use License.
Everything else	Paid license. Companies, freelancers, schools, charities and other organizations, work computers, any service, redistribution. See COMMERCIAL.md.

The source code is public so you can read and verify it, but this is not an open-source license in the OSI sense.

Contact for a commercial license: bluremind@gmail.com · GitHub issues for questions and bug reports.

If ScreenShift saved your laptop, a ⭐ helps other people find it.