Re “ID's trick of “opening” as a tiny, super-minimized window partly outside of the top left corner of the screen”:

Same thing's happening to me using a single monitor, Windows 7, and Indesign CS5. ID frequently, if not always, launches minimized in the upper left corner.

I found this article:

https://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_ge…..mized.html

So I opened the ID Shortcut Properties, and changed the Run setting from Normal to Maximized.

Seems to have fixed the problem for now.