Screwy start ups and how to keep apps on desired displays?

[u/Sakecat1]

Solved: I found a setting that the update to Tahoe 26.7.1 must have changed. I know I didn't change any settings this past summer. Buried in the Advanced Accessibility settings is a toggle, "Restore Zoom Factor on Startup". I turned this off and startups are relatively back to normal. I wish I had never updated to Tahoe.

I have a 2021 MacBook Pro 14" M1 with 32 GB memory, running Tahoe 26.7.1 I use two extended displays and the built-in monitor. The built-in monitor is the main one. One extended display is connected via the HDMI port. The other is connected via an HDMI port on a TOTU dock. This set up has been the same since 2021.

At start-up these apps open: Chrome, Preview, TextEdit and Pages. I keep the documents I am working with on the right side of the dock. Chrome opens with 14 tabs. This has been my working set-up for over three years.

I 've used Display Maid to keep app windows on the desired monitors since pre Tahoe. Before Display Maid they would jump around whenever I woke the MacBook from sleep or restarted it. now the apps are jumping around again. I use Rectangle to size my windows as the need arises. I have not messed with the display resolutions.

When I restarted the MacBook Sunday evening 10/4/26, the Chrome window which I keep on the display connected to the HDMI port was not visible. I never use full screen for any window but I checked to see if a goblin had created a space and put Chrome in it. It hadn't. I tried clicking the Chrome icon in the dock and only the right edge of the window appeared at the far left of the display. I managed to drag it fully onto the display. All the displays flashed off and the alias icons on the main screen returned at only ⅛", a fraction of their usual size. Meanwhile the HDMI port display was so zoomed in as to be unusable. Nothing, including short cuts, would un-zoom it. Each time I restarted, the same thing or worse happened. after multiple restarts, I finally got the HDMI monitor back to normal but the desktop icons are still teeny-tiny. The desktop image is normal.

The next time I restarted, it was the built-in monitor that was so zoomed in as to be unusable. A couple of restarts finally restored it.

Since Display Maid no longer maintains the positions of open apps, can anyone offer another app to do this task? And what do I do about restarts making one or more displays unusable?