Section 4 - Multi-display Management and Settings
Settings for your multiple display system
When you first install your extra monitors, it will be likely that they will not activate upon boot-up. To activate your secondary monitors, simply go to the “Settings” tab in the Display Properties (right-click on desktop and click on “properties”, then click on the “Settings” tab in the new window). The settings tab will display a graphical representation of your monitors. Simply select a display by clicking on the boxes with numbers to set that specific display. To activate an extra monitor, select the monitor and check the “Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor” and select apply. It is normal for your monitors to flicker for a moment.
The graphical representations of your monitors tell windows what physical position your monitors actually are. With out this, your mouse, or windows you drag over, wouldn’t cross the monitors in the right position. To identify which monitor is which, simply click identify button to see which numbered box represent which monitor. You can click and drag the boxes in order to have your monitors in the correct position.
You can also set resolution, color quality and advance settings for each screen by the settings tab. Some programs and video card drivers (Such as the NVIDIA Panel) can also set-up these settings.
To setup the screensaver and wallpaper in a multi-display system, please see
Section 6 – FAQ/Debugging
Primary and secondary monitors
Upon adding monitors, windows will select one monitor as “primary”. The primary monitor is where your full-screen programs will launch upon running such a program. The primary monitor can be selected via the “Settings” tab in the Display Properties window. Some programs such as
Ultramon can be used to set-up on which screen a program launches (See
section 5).
Secondary monitors are simply your other monitors which are not set as primary.
Windows, Multi-display and you
Once you have your multi-display setup, the first thing you might notice is that the secondary monitors do not contain a taskbar. This is because windows only displays the taskbar in the primary monitor. You can however, move the taskbar by unlocking it, and click-dragging the taskbar to another screen. Whish for a taskbar on all monitors? Luckily so did many other people. A few developers have made programs to add taskbars to secondary monitors. (See
section 5 - Multi-display Tips/Tricks/Programs).
To move your windows, you can simply click and drag a window across screens (as long as your monitors are setup correctly, see “Setting-up your multiple display system” above). When you maximize a window, it will maximize to the monitor of which the majority of the window is in. You cannot switch a maximized window, unless you get a program to do so. (See
section 5).
In no time, you will have internet, emails, word possessing, or any other windowed program on your multiple monitor system and increased productivity.