Is it doable to vary the display screen show names in MacOS for a multi monitor setup

Examined on macOS 15.1 with two “DELL P2415Q” (5 years outdated) displays.

If the seller of your monitor assigned, per {hardware} unit, distinctive worth for “ProductID” property (see under), then you may “rename” monitor by creating particular XML file.

In my case I had following Shows: “DELL P2415Q (1)”, “DELL P2415Q (2)”, “Constructed-in Show”. The aim was to rename to “DELL-Major”, “DELL-Aux”, “Constructed-in Show”.

A bit idea

Apple has a mechanism of overriding Dispay properties. System offered overrides situated at /System/Library/Shows/Contents/Assets/Overrides.
Person can even make an override by making acceptable Plist-file below /Library/Shows/Contents/Assets/Overrides subdirectory.

Be aware: The folder /Library/Shows/Contents/Assets/Overrides could not exists. You might must manually create it (see under).

It seems like macOS has some guidelines to determine acceptable Plist-file with show overrides.
Working file identify conference – Vendor id and Product id primarily based file identify.

E.g. /Library/Shows/Contents/Assets/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-/DisplayProductID-

Be aware: Plist-file has no extension (e.g. no .plist or .xml extension).

Steps

So we have to discover values for DisplayVendorID () and DisplayProductID (). To take action, execute command ioreg -l -w0 -x | grep "DisplayAttributes". This command will return values in hexadecimal format.

Instance output:

    | |   |   |   "DisplayAttributes" = {"SupportsSuspend"=Sure,"MaximumRefreshRate"=0x4c,"SupportsActiveOff"=Sure,"PortID"=0x30,"ProductAttributes"={"YearOfManufacture"=0x7e3,"ManufacturerID"="DEL","SerialNumber"=0x30343042,"ProductName"="DELL P2415Q","AlphanumericSerialNumber"="D8VXF9B8040B","LegacyManufacturerID"=0x10ac,"ProductID"=0xa0c5,"WeekOfManufacture"=0x2d},"MaxVerticalImageSize"=0x1e,"MinimumVariableRefreshRate"=0x1d0000,"MaxHorizontalImageSize"=0x35,"HasHDMILegacyEDID"=No,"Chromaticity"={"Crimson"={"X"=0xa8c0,"Y"=0x5580},"Inexperienced"={"X"=0x4d00,"Y"=0xa380},"Blue"={"X"=0x2640,"Y"=0xb00}},"DefaultColorSpaceIsSRGB"=No,"DefaultWhitePoint"={"X"=0x5040,"Y"=0x5440,"Gamma"=0x23333},"SupportsVariableRefreshRate"=No,"AspectRatio"=0xf,"MinimumRefreshRate"=0x1d,"MaximumVariableRefreshRate"=0x4c0000,"WhitePoints"=({"X"=0x5040,"Y"=0x5440,"Gamma"=0x23333}),"PreciseAspectRatio"=0x1c444,"ContinuousFrequencySupport"="None","SupportsStandby"=Sure}

That is half we want:

... "LegacyManufacturerID"=0x10ac,"ProductID"=0xa0c5, ...

In output above the worth of the LegacyManufacturerID key (e.g. 0x10ac) will characterize DisplayVendorID (e.g. 10ac).

The worth of the ProductID key (e.g. 0xa0c5) will characterize DisplayProductID (e.g. a0c5).

Now we’re able to assemble Plist-file identify. It will likely be:

/Library/Shows/Contents/Assets/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-10ac/DisplayProductID-a0c5

Now you may create in, say, ~/Downloads folder file with identify DisplayProductID-a0c5 with under contents:

    DisplayVendorID
    4268
    DisplayProductID
    41157
    DisplayProductName
    Put-Desired-Monitor-Identify-Right here

The values 4268 and 41157 – are above discovered values for LegacyManufacturerID and ProductID, however this time in decimal format.

You may convert beforehand discovered values from hexadecimal to decimal format through the use of any on-line converter. Or by executing identical ioreg command with out -x flag. E.g.: ioreg -l -w0 | grep "DisplayAttributes".

Now you may put together vacation spot listing and replica Plist-file:

To create vacation spot listing execute:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Shows/Contents/Assets/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-10ac

To repeat Plist-file execute:

sudo cp -fv $HOME/Downloads/DisplayProductID-a0c5 /Library/Shows/Contents/Assets/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-10ac/DisplayProductID-a0c5

Repeat above steps for different shows.

Now you might be created personal Show overrides.

As a last step REBOOT macOS.

End result on my aspect: