multi-LCD support in Win7 x64 - is UltraMon the one to go with?

[Idontcare]

Hi, long long long time dual-screen user here that recently made the transition from XP to Win7 64bit...discovered my Nview dual-lcd control panel disappeared in the "upgrade" so I have been looking around at 3rd party apps.

Is UltraMon basically "the" multi-lcd program to get these days? Any other tier-1 (i.e. non-buggy) alternatives out there?

The built-in multi-monitor support in Win7 works OK, but the fact it won't let you setup monitor-specific backgrounds is just super annoying (c'mon! really? can't handle such a minor personalization microsoft? it's been doable since windows95...).

I don't mind the $40 for ultramon, although that seems just a little pricey for something that I used to get for free with my Nvidia drivers in WinXP for the past 5 years. (thanks NV for the continued customer commitment...)

What does ATI's eyefinity use? Does it rely on the Windows built-in multi-monitor application or do the ATI drivers come with their own version of Nview (what Nvidia used to provide pre-Win7/Vista)?

 

[Lonyo]

What do you want to do (apart from customised backgrounds)?

ATI does have Hydravision, http://ati.amd.com/products/hydravision/index.html, which has some features NView used to have. Don't think it does different backgrounds per-monitor.
Personally I don't feel a need to have different backgrounds on my monitors, and while I have Hydravision installed I don't use any of its features (Did try Grids for a bit but the default Win 7 snap to side is fine mostly).

Based on this: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/gpu50-ati-eyefinity-display-groups.aspx
Eyefinity just lets you set up the monitors like NV's old Span mode did, only sorted into groups if desired, and doesn't add any extra display/multi-monitor options in and of itself, those come from Hydravision.

 

[Idontcare]

What do you want to do (apart from customised backgrounds)?

The option of defining which lcd a given program defaults to opening on would be nice.

ATI does have Hydravision, http://ati.amd.com/products/hydravision/index.html, which has some features NView used to have. Don't think it does different backgrounds per-monitor.
Personally I don't feel a need to have different backgrounds on my monitors, and while I have Hydravision installed I don't use any of its features (Did try Grids for a bit but the default Win 7 snap to side is fine mostly).

Thanks for the link and info.

Yeah I use my background realestate to hold information that I want handy/ready access to in a "persistent presence" manner. Subliminal nagware I suppose.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

freeware i use for the win7 dual wallpaper mishap. also has hotkey switching.

http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

Tried the others but this ones the simplest and isnt bloated with extra crap and light on resources.

 

[Jingato]

I just two 1920x1200 images and combined them into one 3840x1200 image and applied that ad my wallpaper. now each screen has different backgrounds, but using the same image.

 

[Skandaluz]

I'm currently running win7 64bit and using UltraMon. I like it alot. Just like you, I wanted different wallpaper for each of my screens. So far no problems for me.

 

[Voo]

I just two 1920x1200 images and combined them into one 3840x1200 image and applied that ad my wallpaper. now each screen has different backgrounds, but using the same image.

Dito, the not cool, but perfectly working, solution for that problem May be a little bit inconvenient (well, 30seconds to put it together and how often do you change wallpapers?), but totally not worth 40$ if that'd be the only thing you'd be using.

 

[Minotaar]

Does anyone have a link to officially what happened to nview? I upgraded my drivers recently and nview fell out from under me. What a f**ken hassle.

 

[aka1nas]

Does anyone have a link to officially what happened to nview? I upgraded my drivers recently and nview fell out from under me. What a f**ken hassle.

Nview was deprecated when WDDM came out with Vista. The new driver model doesn't allow for spans, and we are now stuck with proprietary solutions like SoftTH, Eyefinity, Nv Surround, Etc to get display spans on Vista or Windows 7.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

Win 7's snap features are pretty cool, but I couldn't live without WinSplit Revolution to arrange all the programs I use while I'm working (software dev). Just wanted to give it a shout-out since others were recommending similar programs.

 

[Cookie Monster]

I also use ultramon along with Win7 pro x64.

Basically, you do the basic setup via control panel and then tweak the other stuff using ultramon.

Atm, I can set which display is my primary/secondary, disable the secondary monitor with a click of a button, setup different wall paper per panel, add in the task bar to other monitors if you need etc.

Theres other nifty tools like moving a window from primary to secondary display vice versa, or maximizing the window across the display.

Id recommend this since it saves alot of headache.

 

[pmurgs]

I've used Ultramon for a long time. Great program. But since Windows 7 came out, I switched to DisplayFusion. Both applications have been pretty robust in my experiance.

Reason being, the developer of Ultramon doesn't seem to be putting much effort into Ultramon anymore. The DisplayFusion developer seems to put a lot more time and effort into his application. It took ages for the Ultramon developer to release a decent Windows 7 version of his application whereas the DisplayFusion developer had his application fully compatible wtih Windows 7 during the Windows 7 beta process.

If both applications suite your needs, I'd go with DisplayFusion as bugs are likely to get fixed faster and new features added quicker.

 

[lifeblood]

I use DisplayFusion as well on Win7 x64 and have had zero problems with it. I don't do anything fancy but do like the different wallpapers on each monitor.

 

[SleepyD]

I used UltraMon for years until I switched to Windows 7. Unfortunately, UltraMon's Win7 support is rather lacking, and as pmurgs mentioned, UltraMon is now only infrequently updated.

The specific feature that I was looking for is support for Windows 7's "Pin to Taskbar" option, which is completely overlooked in both UltraMon and DisplayFusion Pro. I found a program called Actual Multiple Monitors ($30; 30-day trial) which, in my opinion, does a MUCH better job of simulating a second taskbar than both UltraMon and DisplayFusion. It optionally supports a separate start menu, taskbar with pinning, notification area and clock on all of your extra monitors.

Of course, AMM also supports different wallpapers/screensavers per monitor, window snapping, per-program monitor defaults, hotkeys and a host of customization options. It also appears to be updated fairly regularly. The latest version (v2.2, as of June 3rd) fixed all of the weirdness that I observed from the previous version, which is what convinced me to buy it.

Hope this helps!