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Programs such as UltraMon, DisplayFusion, Actual Multiple Monitors, and MurGeeMon enable you to control your multiple-display desktop far beyond what's possible with the standard display drivers provided by ATI and NVIDIA. We covered some of these a couple of years ago, but with Windows 7 and new players in the game, it's time for another look.
UltraMon can be tried free for 30 days (after that, you'll need to pony up $39.95 for a single license; quantity discounts start at two or more licenses). UltraMon isn't as smart as DisplayFusion when you need multiple-display wallpaper, but it provides strong window management features such as additional buttons for switching windows between displays, your choice of mirrored taskbars or smart taskbars that showonly the tasks running on each display, instant horizontal or vertical tiling of program windows, and custom settings for troublesome programs.
The free version of DisplayFusion makes correct sizing of multiple-display wallpaper very easy. You can span a single image across all displays, have separate wallpaper on each display, control how the wallpaper fits the display, and even apply grayscale or sepia-tone effects. If you want to move a maximized program between displays, it's no longer necessary to restore the window, drag the window to the other display, and maximize it. You can also move program windows by middle-clicking the top edge of the program window and use hotkeys to move and resize windows. For additional features, such as the ability to put your desktop toolbar on each display, you'll need to buy the Pro version.
Actual Multiple Monitors version 2.0 now supports Windows 7, and provides intelligent wallpaper creation, customized screen saver settings for each display, automatic window positioning, various ways to switch windows between displays, customizable rules for specific programs, window snapping options, command prompt window support, and customizable mouse actions. You can try it for 30 days, and a license costs $29.95.
MurGeeMon isn't quite free, and only supports up to two displays, but registration is only $5, and it provides a lot of power for the money. Although it's billed as supporting Windows 7, its right-click menu winds up partially hiding behind the popup notification area control. MurGeeMon might be a bit rough around the edges, but it offers some unique features, such as the ability to create desktop shortcuts to switch a display into any supported resolution and color depth, set up hotkeys for selected actions, and create custom login wallpaper (Windows 7 and Vista only).
PCI Express x16, SLI, and CrossFire provide plenty of graphics firepower for today's systems, but if you're looking to spread your virtual world across multiple displays, you might need extra hardware or software to do the trick.
If you want to add three-display gaming to your existing computer hardware, you can add more hardware or use software. Matrox's TripleHead2Go hardware supports three-display surround gaming on desktops or laptops with over 325 titles, and you can add support for many more by installing the free Matrox TripleHead2Go Surround Gaming Utility.
To add triple head support to existing games for free, try SoftTH. It enables many DirectX 9-compatible games to be played on three displays using two graphics cards. For tips on setting up some popular games with SoftTH, see the FuryTech SoftTH web page.
If you're in the market for brand new graphics cards, ATI's new HD 5000-series GPUs support Eyefinity technology, which supports gaming and productivity on up to three displays per card - we tried a six-display rig last fall.
Maybe your "secondary display" is actually connected (or built into) a different computer. You can use a single keyboard and mouse to work with both of them by installing Synergy or Input Director. See our own David Murphy's impressions of both programs here.
If you have a system that lacks support for multiple displays, the easiest way to add support is with a USB display adapter. Depending upon the device, it might include VGA out, DVI out, or DVI-I out along with a DVI-VGA converter.
Because these devices piggyback on the existing GPU, they're not designed for 3D gaming. However, if you're looking mainly for a way to add a display to your system for web browsing, social media, or productivity, it's a low-cost, no-teardown way to do it. You can add multiple displays to your system by using multiple adapters; each adapter uses its own USB 2.0 port (USB 1.1 ports need not apply).
Comments are closed on this article
modallen
February 27, 2010 at 2:30pm
SO I'm having a problem with windows 7. I have two LCD monitors and in windows 7 settings you can drag around the monitors position to match your physical layout. I set up my monitors so the bottom of each screen line up as a straight line, but windows 7 defaults and aligns them up to the top edge. I can drag them around in the settings to where I want it (the bottoms aligned) but whenever I reboot, it defaults back to the top alignment. Is there anyway I can get my configuration to stay, or do I have to fix it each time I reboot.
alex911
February 24, 2010 at 1:02pm
If you have two sound devices you can. If the program lets you select the sound device then its easy. Most programs just use the default sound device though. I have open ear headphones so I'd game on them and use the speakers to push music so that way it didn't interfere with gaming much.
To do this, i'd launch itunes and hit play, then change my default sound device to headphones and launch the game.
actualtools
February 24, 2010 at 2:47am
Thanks for the great article!
BTW, Actual Multiple Monitors 2.0 has some unique features not mentioned in its description but they may appear useful to readers:
- Start button, system notification area (tray) and the clock on each additional taskbar
- main Taskbar toolbars (like Quick Launch, Desktop, Windows Media Player, etc.) on each additional taskbar
- the Alt-Tab Task Switcher window cloned onto all secondary displays
- manual reordering of taskbar buttons and system tray icons (both in the primary and secondary taskbars)
For those who looks for more functionality than decorations, AMM 2.0 appears to be the best choice for its price.
bigm0ney13
February 23, 2010 at 9:17pm
Is there a way two have a movie running on my tv from my pc while i'm play mass effect with separate without hearing both? Headphones for the game and my surround set up for the movie.
aznhybriddragon
February 23, 2010 at 9:47pm
this is my theory, but i think the only way you can have it so that your tv/movie and game would have separate sounds is if you have two sound cards, I used to do triple screen gaming, and I had a creative audigy sound card plugged in and also have my motherboard 7.1 sound. I used to play games with headphones on connected to the creative sound card and I had my 5.1 speakers hooked up to my motherboard sound card. So i would be hearing the game through headphones and hearing the music or watever I had playing through the speakers.
Also to the topic
I used to use triplehead2go untill a couple months ago when i decided not to use triplescreen gaming. the hardware works well also I would recommend the site http://widescreengamingforum.com/ Since it has a excellent community and mainly games are supported through the help of the community, i recommend going to that site for information on triplescreen gaming
darkcactus1957
February 23, 2010 at 7:16pm
Great Job !!! this might keep the msg's and email traffic at a reasonable level, yeah... right...
