geekhack
geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: mrsone on Sat, 09 October 2010, 17:48:24
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Hey everyone! I recently just purchased an extra monitor for my computer, so now I will be using a dual display for the first time. I am loving it so far, yet I have already found the built-in Windows support to be severely lacking when it comes to having multiple monitors. I came across some software solutions to help manage multiple displays, and I wanted to ask everyone for their input on which software they use and which is the preferred solution.
I am leaning towards Display Fusion, which seems to be the most current (and cheapest) of the ones that I have found. I also have looked at UltraMon, Actual Multiple Monitors, and MultiMon. What are you using?
Thanks in advance for the help!
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ultramon and autosizer
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ultramon and autosizer
I'll have to check out autosizer. What OS are you using them with?
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windows 7
i've heard displayfusion is what most people use these days but things are working fine here with ultramon so..."if it aint broke then don't fix it" :D
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You should get another computer to go with that monitor. That'll make it great for multi-tasking!
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^ what kishy sez, not a dumb question at all
What basic multi-monitor stuff doesn't Windows do for you?
btw, what are your video devices? Integrated graphics plus GPU, CFX/SLI multi-GPUs, etc? Have you already tweaked all your [strike]ATi[/strike]AMD/nVidia software?
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I'm pretty sure the OP means moving Windows easily from one to the other.
Having wallpapers that span monitors (or have different ones per monitor).
Moving the mouse/focus between monitors with the keyboard.
Etc.
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Oh. I use two mice, lol, never considered that problem.
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I'm pretty sure the OP means moving Windows easily from one to the other.
Having wallpapers that span monitors (or have different ones per monitor).
Moving the mouse/focus between monitors with the keyboard.
Etc.
That pretty much sums up what I am was looking for. Also, the ability to have screen savers on both monitors. Another issue for me is that when I am using programs on both monitors only the main monitor has the taskbar, so I always have to go to the main monitor to access the taskbar icons.
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^ what kishy sez, not a dumb question at all
What basic multi-monitor stuff doesn't Windows do for you?
btw, what are your video devices? Integrated graphics plus GPU, CFX/SLI multi-GPUs, etc? Have you already tweaked all your [strike]ATi[/strike]AMD/nVidia software?
I currently have a ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB graphics card. Its low-end so I know I can't expect much from it. I tired using Hydravision and I can't get it to do everything I want easily, although the multiple desktops thing is kinda cool.
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Probably not the solution your looking for, but I eventually settled on using Tiling Based Window Managers (e.g. Awesome WM). Pretty much has all of that built in.
Not for Windows mind you :P. Though I was writing something similar to that for Windows a while back (before I got busy and went to Japan for a while).
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I liked DisplayFusion.
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I feel like MS Windows with this post, but everyone could just use the best screensaver, which is a solid black/blank one, in addition to setting screens to go into standby a minute later.
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You should get another computer to go with that monitor. That'll make it great for multi-tasking!
That would be awesome, if I only had the money! LOL!
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Probably not your thing but give Linux a try with that setup, multi display support is excellent.
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That would be awesome, if I only had the money! LOL!
Nobody says it's got to be a good computer.
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Probably not your thing but give Linux a try with that setup, multi display support is excellent.
I would try that, but the main reason why I can't is that one of the programs that I use for my job won't run in Linux. I had Ubuntu via Wubi for a while and it was awesome. Maybe I should do a dual boot or something...Windows for work, Linux for play.
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Rearranging monitors without additional software is easy. The usual right click => resolution routine (Win7), click 1 or 2, tick it is main, done. I don't think it can be much faster without a keyboard shortcut, though you may prefer it in the system tray or something. You can also actually drag and drop the monitors there, switching them around and fixing the height at which the cursor will move to the other screen if they are not of the same height, when crossing the edge.
If you want a different wallpaper on each, just prepare an image the size of both your monitors combined. If your monitors do not use the same resolution, you will have to do some maths to position the smaller one in the right place (hint: check out the Resolution tab to figure out). The load it is your tiled wallpaper. Tile is the only one way to span across more than one monitor instead of replicating. Just figured out today.
BTW, even if you actually wanted to use the same wallpaper on two monitors working each in a different resolution, you might want to follow this method in order to provide the system with a properly resized image for the other monitor (not like Windows's own wallpaper scaling is bad).
Just bought a second monitor today, by the way. I had been using a borrowed one for a day or three but I used to have a laptop with an additional external monitor at work. That's how I learnt how great it was to work on two. Right now I'm translating repetitive texts and I can display additional two full-sized documents besides the source and target. Gives copy-pasting a whole new dimension and enables me to earn money faster, while preserving my sanity by sparing me the continuous awful ALT-TABbing that makes you dizzy after several hours of doing it.
The funny thing is my old monitor is a glossy (HP w2007v, very decent monitor, except it has a D-Sub VGA socket only, while w2207v has DVI) and my new one (LG W2361V-PF) is a matte. Using a dual-monitor wallpaper doesn't make much sense as things look quite different between the two.
If anybody is considering getting a second monitor, I would seriously recommend getting the exact same you have (so you buy two new ones or find a used twin at E-Bay for cheap) unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, e.g. you either can make them look the same or don't care/want to (or badly need Pivot--which comes with the additional bonus of a longer telescopic leg which means you don't need to use books like I do). (And anybody wishing to play old games on a new monitor: having a real vertical 1200 may help).
Eh, I already need a third! Need a fork cable bad.
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Probably not your thing but give Linux a try with that setup, multi display support is excellent.
Meh. I heard it was better in Kubuntu than Ubuntu, but ultimately I've found multi display to be MUCH easier in Win 7. What flavor Linux are you running?
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Meh. I heard it was better in Kubuntu than Ubuntu, but ultimately I've found multi display to be MUCH easier in Win 7. What flavor Linux are you running?
I run gentoo personally (not for everyone..) but it doesn't matter really, any flavor does it well in my experience.
I was referring specifically to multi-video card + multiple display support however, which Linux does very well in and windows does not.
Single video card dual output is built in drivers, I don't see why the OP would need a separate program to handle that.
In Linux you can run any number of configurations with multiple video cards and multiple displays, for example one distinct workspace on each monitor (can have different icons on desktop, background etc), shared workspace with a single mouse/keyboard and dragging windows across the two screens and so on.
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The real purpose that I was looking into the software was for extending the Windows taskbar onto two monitors, as well as having a screen saver that shows up on both monitors instead of just the main. I can get the wallpaper to work on my monitors okay. I do agree about getting two monitors that are the same size, though. I currently have a 20" monitor and a 22" monitor and I wish both were 22"...
That is one thing about multiple displays, when you don't have them, you learn to deal without them. Once you get then, you don't know how you lived without them. I also want a third one, although I may just end up getting another one that is 22".
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Nobody says it's got to be a good computer.
Maybe that is my excuse to try building one myself! I can get all the parts of Ebay and then build a custom machine!
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my work machine has been dual display for 4 years, running more flavours of linux than I care to admit. It works fine, and I have also used more WM/DE with these displays than I care to admit. What software do you have that doesn't run under Linux? We have a bunch at work (our entire front end - which I don't usually touch but need to have the ability to), I use Virtualbox with a windows install for those apps. It works great with multiple displays too, since you can relegate the VM to one screen while it is running.
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The real purpose that I was looking into the software was for extending the Windows taskbar onto two monitors, as well as having a screen saver that shows up on both monitors instead of just the main. I can get the wallpaper to work on my monitors okay. I do agree about getting two monitors that are the same size, though. I currently have a 20" monitor and a 22" monitor and I wish both were 22"...
That is one thing about multiple displays, when you don't have them, you learn to deal without them. Once you get then, you don't know how you lived without them. I also want a third one, although I may just end up getting another one that is 22".
What do you have tho? Is it two monitors on one video card or multiple video cards? I don't see why the screen saver would not work on both monitors if they're on the same video card.
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I see then it must that there's no driver support for multiple displays and windows is splitting them up which causes the screensaver to only show up on primary.
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What do you have tho? Is it two monitors on one video card or multiple video cards? I don't see why the screen saver would not work on both monitors if they're on the same video card.
I have two monitors on the same video card. With my screensaver active I noticed that when the computer goes into screensaver mode, it only shows up on one monitor. So the other monitor doesn't show the screensaver at all.
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The real purpose that I was looking into the software was for extending the Windows taskbar onto two monitors, as well as having a screen saver that shows up on both monitors instead of just the main. I can get the wallpaper to work on my monitors okay. I do agree about getting two monitors that are the same size, though. I currently have a 20" monitor and a 22" monitor and I wish both were 22"...
That is one thing about multiple displays, when you don't have them, you learn to deal without them. Once you get then, you don't know how you lived without them. I also want a third one, although I may just end up getting another one that is 22".
Screensaver only on main? That's lousy. Another lousy thing is seeing a screen you can't access without alt-tabbing anyway while you're gaming on main. Plus, screen resolution etc. adjustments are sometimes done on the other monitor too, without need, as it has its own resolution firstly and is not used by the game secondly.
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Yep. That pretty much sums it up. The basic multiple monitor support on Windows 7 is okay, but the more I get used to it, the more I see where there are a lot of minor annoyances lining up. I have been trying Desktop Fusion for a while and that seems to be getting rid of most of my issues, but I still wish it would have the start menu on both taskbars like Actual Multiple Monitors does.