Combo Box Drop Down List Always Appears on Primary Monitor

On a dual-monitor computer, a combo box drop down list may always appear on the primary monitor. This symptom may occur even if the combo box itself is placed on a secondary monitor.

This control feature is provided by the Fm20.dll file, and Fm20.dll was not designed to work with multiple monitors. The fix described in this article is a design change that is specific to only combo box drop down lists.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date         Time   Size       File name
   ----------------------------------------------------------
   24-Sep-2002  22:49  2,716,692  Fm20.msp        (Client)
   24-Sep-2002  23:31  1,810,972  Fm20_admin.msp  (Full File)

After the hotfix is installed, the English version of this fix will have the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date         Time   Version     Size       File name
   ----------------------------------------------------
   22-Mar-2002  20:38  2.1.9922.1  1,129,232  Fm20.dll

This fix is a post-Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP-2) fix. To install the fix, you must have Office XP SP-2 installed. For additional information about Office XP SP-2, click the following article number to see the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Additionally, you may have to install Windows Installer 2.0 to install this fix. For additional information about the Windows Installer requirement for post-Office XP SP-2 fixes, click the following article number to see the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.