2 monitors on 1 pc

[QueBert]

was looking for a VGA splitter around my area but all I found was ones that split 1 signal to 2 pcs, this person is trying to run 2 monitors off 1 card. He doesn't want to run them at the same time, just wants to be able to toggle between them. If I get him a card with 1 DVI and 1 VGA if both are hooked up would I be able to switch between them in the drivers? I've never actually tried that with my card and have no spare monitor to test this.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I think you either mirror it, stretch the desktop across both, or only use one. You can select either one as the main monitor.

I don't think you could do what you want to do.

 

[zylander]

Why does he want to toggle between the two? Doesnt really make much sense. But, what you can do is use Ultramon to enable both monitors and what this will do is expand the desktop onto the second monitor. Then, you can disable the secondary so only the primary will be on. Then toggle back and forth which monitor is to be the primary and this should toggle between each monitor. I dont have my second monitor hooked up right now so I cant test this but I would think it should work.

 

[dawza]

As zylander mentioned, UltraMon will allow him to do this; with this program, keyboard shortcuts are available to activate/inactivate the secondary monitor(s) on demand- I do not recall if there is any shortcut to quickly specify which monitor is primary and which is secondary, though. He would also be able to create KB shortcuts to lock the mouse to the current monitor as well as to jump back and forth between screens. Not sure if I quite understand why he would want to have dual monitors yet only use one at a time, but if it is due to concerns of the mouse pointer jumping across screens, UltraMon can take care of that. It also gives you a nifty "smart" toolbar that keeps track of applications on the screen that they are currently running.

I suppose he could also use Windows to activate/deactivate the secondary monitor as desired, but it would be a PITA to have to do constantly.