Can WinXP automatically change from single to dual monitors?

[eLiu]

Hey all,
So I have a friend who has a Toshiba laptop w/nVidia graphics.

She travels around with the laptop during the day. At night, she connects it to an external monitor (2005FPW) and spans the desktop across both.

Right now, she has to manually change the settings/resolution/etc to make this happen. We want to know if there is a way to make WinXP do this automatically--some kind of setting, hotkey, or whatever.

Do you guys have any ideas?

Thanks,
-Eric Liu

 

[NuAlphaMan]

I had this set up on my corporate pc. You should be able to set this up under display properties. Right click anywhere on the desktop and select the settings tab. Then she should be able to set the display setting there. It will give you the option of choosing one of the monitors as 1 and the other as 2. When you disconnect the laptop from the monitor, it should remember these settings when you reconnect.

 

[eLiu]

Originally posted by: NuAlphaMan
I had this set up on my corporate pc. You should be able to set this up under display properties. Right click anywhere on the desktop and select the settings tab. Then she should be able to set the display setting there. It will give you the option of choosing one of the monitors as 1 and the other as 2. When you disconnect the laptop from the monitor, it should remember these settings when you reconnect.

We have tried this, but there's a problem. When we disconnect the external monitor, the computer doesn't reset the desktop to only span 1 screen. So in other words, the mouse/programs/start bar/etc all go off the screen.

-Eric

P.S.
Also, in the current setup, when she changes from 1 to 2 monitors, it doesn't remember the original 2 monitor settings (e.g. moved the start bar to monitor 2), which is annoying.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: eLiu

Originally posted by: NuAlphaMan
I had this set up on my corporate pc. You should be able to set this up under display properties. Right click anywhere on the desktop and select the settings tab. Then she should be able to set the display setting there. It will give you the option of choosing one of the monitors as 1 and the other as 2. When you disconnect the laptop from the monitor, it should remember these settings when you reconnect.

We have tried this, but there's a problem. When we disconnect the external monitor, the computer doesn't reset the desktop to only span 1 screen. So in other words, the mouse/programs/start bar/etc all go off the screen.

-Eric

P.S.
Also, in the current setup, when she changes from 1 to 2 monitors, it doesn't remember the original 2 monitor settings (e.g. moved the start bar to monitor 2), which is annoying.

Try getting a copy of UltraMon...I believe you can try before you buy. I have mine set up so that you can hit a hotkey and switch between one and three monitor mode.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Can you set it up as two profiles in the Nvidia manager deal, and use a hotkey to switch between them? I'm pretty sure CCC lets you do that.

 

[eLiu]

I'll give the profile thing & UltraMon a try later tonight.