- General
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Bugs
Monitor detection.
I have a laptop (Windows 7) with an external monitor attached and have the display settings to only show content on monitor 2; however, your stupid extension uses monitor 1 which isn't even on and throws Chrome over to it so I can't even see it. You don't get to decide which monitor I put Chrome in.
Anyway, the bug: I tried to move the Chrome window on monitor 1 and Chrome completely disappeared.
Solution
While Chrome is active, can you use Win+Right / Win+Left keys or Win+Shift+Right / Win+Shift+Left keys to move the Chrome window and Sidewise sidebar to the desired monitor? These key combinations are built into Windows 7 to allow you to move things between monitors even when you can't see them.
That's all well and good... and it works; however, I have to do that *and* resize Chrome every single time open it and if I attempt to maximize or move it while it's on monitor 2. This is not acceptable behavior for any user interface. There's no reason whatsoever for you to be detecting monitors at all. Checking the resolution of the current monitor for the purpose of placing your extension window is all you need and, even then, it should only be done once - the user is perfectly capable of moving and resizing his own windows.
Sorry for the "lecture," but I have my UI exactly how I want it and I expect it to stay that way the next time and your extension not only breaks that expectation, it forces it.
I understand your frustration. I'm not sure exactly why it's forcing things onto monitor 1 for you; on my machine Chrome/Sidewise open on the same monitor (monitor 2 for me) that they were on during the previous session. It's definitely a bug, and not working as intended.
For what it's worth, the monitor detection routine is only present because of limitations in Chrome which have prevented extensions from accurately obtaining the resolution of the current monitor as you suggest. In short, Chrome would often report the resolution of the wrong monitor when asked for it, which could badly break things. The existing monitor-detection routine was the best workaround I could figure out for this issue.
These "wrong monitor" Chrome bugs have been largely fixed recently, so I have a rewrite of the monitor/resolution code on my priority todo list. My hope is that when the rewrite is done, I will be able to do exactly as you suggest, and can drop the existing monitor detection routine entirely.
I look forward to a fix. Since Chrome lacks a tab tree, I have to use either Firefox which leaks like a sieve or Opera which Facebook doesn't play well with. lol
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While Chrome is active, can you use Win+Right / Win+Left keys or Win+Shift+Right / Win+Shift+Left keys to move the Chrome window and Sidewise sidebar to the desired monitor? These key combinations are built into Windows 7 to allow you to move things between monitors even when you can't see them.