Dual Monitor Help

[Raibaru]

Hey guys,
I finally managed to find a DVI/HDMI cable that could fit next to my monitor plug for my geforce8800 gts card. So now I'm trying to figure out how to set up dual monitor support. I'm running a lcd monitor, and an aquos lcd tv.

I think ultimately the clone mode may be the best bet, but I've been having a hell of a time trying to configure them separately to use different resolutions and such.

I've set it up and managed to get both monitors to act semi-independently with dualview, but ultimately it's just being treated as one long display. Below are some of the things I'm trying to accomplish and hopefully some of you guys can help me get some of them to work...

1.) I want shortcuts that are run from my second display to load in my second display, but not reset defaults to always run from that location. Basically I want to have firefox run from both, and if I leave it on the second display, not default load there when I run it from my main display. It's frustrating switching back to that input when I forget where I've lost executed firefox.

2.) I want sounds that would play from my second display, to play through the speakers on second display, and not my desktop speakers on my PC. Right now I play videos, and have to drag them from my main display, to the second display. I assume once I solve the problem with firefox I'll figure out how to make videos play there. But I assume the sound issue will still remain.

3.) In theory I'm supposed to have control over the wallpaper for both displays independently. However, this doesn't appear to be the case. This one is probably a simple thing to do, but I just can't find it at the moment.

4.) How do I set specific programs to always target the second display? Is there a way to set up a macro so if one program is loading, the second is opened on the other display. For example, if I have a game playing on my main, and I recieve an AIM, it will pop up on my other monitor. And with this, can you set it up to only do this when specific applications are being run (Warcraft it would, but UT it won't for example).

Thanks guys. I've played with it for a couple hours, but I need to head to work and figured I'd get some input from you all before I come home and play with it some more later tomorrow.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Billb2]

First off, you're using NView or something like it...loose that quick!
Uue windows Display to set up your desktop and display settings.
Get Ultramon.
1.) Ultramon can do that
2.) It will remain.
3.) Ultramon can do that.
4.) I don't think that can be done, but Ultramon makes switching aps from monitor to monitor a one click operation

 

[bassoprofundo]

Welcome to the wonderful world of multiple monitors! First off, spend a small amount and get Ultramon. It's absolutely worth every penny if you work with multiple screens (a quick Google on multiple monitor utilities will confirm this). My response will assume you have it installed, as your needs simply can't be met natively within Windows. Now on to your ?s...

1) It isn't as simple as just dragging existing application shortcuts to a monitor, but you should be able to achieve the desired result using Ultramon's "shortcut" feature. It allows you to create shortcuts with customized display settings for where you want the app to open, how large, if you want resolutions to change, etc. Placing the created shortcut on the desktop of the correct monitor should do the trick. (When you have your shortcuts created and arranged, make sure to choose "Save Positions" from the "Desktop icons" submenu within the Ultramon notification icon's dropdown menu. It will save you a ton of headaches if your icons ever decide to magically reorganize themselves as is so often the case in Windows. You can restore their positions from the same menu if changed.)

2.) Not possible. Audio routing has absolutely nothing to do with multiple monitors. You'll have to do it manually. Although... You might be able to creatively "rig" up a solution for some applications if you have multiple sound sources in your PC (ex.- onboard + add-in card) For instance, most media player apps allow you to configure the sound output device within the app. If you had that app configured to launch on the secondary monitor via the above shortcut process, had it configured to use the alternate sound card in your machine, and had that card hooked only to the secondary display device's speakers, it should work. That wouldn't be possible for every app, though, and it certainly wouldn't be possible to route sound there just because of the fact that it's on the secondary monitor.

3.) It's very easy to set up individual wallpapers for each monitor within Ultramon's wallpaper configuration, and there are other 3rd-party tools that do the same. There's no way to natively do this within Windows except to manually create a single JPEG or BMP that matches the full size of your spanned desktop. That would essentially create the illusion that you have different images on each.

4.) Again, you can set up Ultramon's shortcuts to cause apps to launch on a specific display, but that's about it. The kind of behaviors you're mentioning are much more specialized than windows or any 3rd-party app alone would provide.

 

[bassoprofundo]

Doh... Billb2 beat me to the punch... although I turned it into a story...