Working
with Multiple Monitors
January 2001
Marcos Portnoi
Table of Contents
Abstract
Introduction
Installation and
Configuration
Activating
the Secondary Display and Configuring its Options
Screensavers and
Wallpapers
Using the Power
Positioning Items
on the Desktop
Opening the Windows Wide
Games
Performance Issues and Final
Comments
To give an overview of working with multiple monitors in
Microsoft Windows 98, tips to improve productivity and circumvent some problems
is the purposes of this article.
Keywords: multiple displays monitors adapters Windows 98 98SE Me
Anyone who has worked with a 17” monitor will hardly
accept to go back to a 14” one. To
use a 21” one, is to be in paradise. Larger
monitors allow more windows to be open at the same time and larger view span,
which lets more material to be visible at the screen and lowers the need to
operate scroll bars. Particularly
for large texts, design and drawing, large monitors are a must.
Working with more than one monitor is even better.
Two 17” or even two 15” monitors give far more viewing area than a
single 20” monitor. With
Microsoft Windows 98 and later, this is a matter of simply installing a second
video card and checking a box with the mouse.
It works incredibly well, easy and instinctive, for an operating system
under $100. There are video cards in the market that allow two monitors
to be plugged to them (such as Matrox cards
with DualHead), but this article will address a combination of two video cards.
Microsoft Windows 98 and later allows up to nine video adapters to be
controlled. The number is limited
to the availability of free PCI slots in the computer and CPU performance.
The more monitors, the more overhead on the CPU.
Bought a new faster adapter? Bought
a new larger monitor? Why not use
the old adapter or monitor as a second one, instead of letting them rust in the
garage or selling them for a few bucks?
Let’s see how to install a second video card, configure it and go
through a few tips and advices to improve productivity with multiple monitors
and also some problems related, and how to circumvent them.
Any combination of video adapters is possible, although not all adapters
support multiple monitor operation. Examples
of adapters that won’t work with multiple monitors are those based on S3
Aurora and Riva 128. The drivers
must also support multiple monitors. This
shouldn’t be a problem, since Windows 98 includes the proper drivers and
practically all the new adapters support multiple monitors.
Brands or models do not matter.
An AGP adapter can be combined with a PCI adapter, or two PCI adapters
can be combined. Even two PCI
adapters and a third PCI accelerator card (such as the old Voodoo 2) will work
fine. One adapter will be
considered the primary card, and the other will be the secondary adapter. The primary adapter is simply the first one to the
initialized by the BIOS. If a
combination of AGP/PCI is used, new BIOS’es will allow the initialization
order to be chosen. Since the AGP
adapter is usually faster and better than the PCI one, it is common to set the
AGP slot to be initialized first by the BIOS.
If your BIOS does not allow the setting of the order, try a BIOS update.
If two PCI adapters are used, the BIOS will initialize them in the order
they are physically installed. Each
PCI slot has a number: PCI 1, PCI 2
and so on. The lower numbers are
initialized first. If the slot
number cannot be visualized on the motherboard, just install the two PCI video
adapters in the computer, plug the monitors and turn the computer on. The monitor that shows the boot messages is the primary one.
The secondary monitor will remain blank until Windows detects it.
Upon boot, on the first time, Windows’ plug-and-play will usually
properly detect the second card and install the drivers, and will also detect
the monitor attached to the secondary card, if it is plug-and-play compatible.
An article in Microsoft Knowledge Base recommends answering no to all
messages asking the computer to be rebooted, until a message states that the
computer must be rebooted (usually after the plug-and-play monitor is detected).
If the monitor is not properly detected, there is no problem.
Just select “plug-and-play monitor”; it can be changed afterwards.
When Windows initializes the secondary card, a message will be displayed
on the secondary monitor, assuring it is working.
As for monitors, any combination of them is possible.
Different screen sizes, different brands, different models, dot-pitch,
resolution, it doesn’t matter. They
will work just fine, and can be configured individually.
Upon the first time after installation, the secondary
display is not yet active. Windows
boots and shows the desktop on the primary display, and the secondary remains
blank. To activate it, go to
Display Properties. Click on the
Settings tab. You will see the
picture of two monitors, side by side, one of them grayed out. Click on number 2; immediately, Windows shows a message box,
suggesting that the Desktop be extended onto this monitor.
Click “yes” and voilá; the secondary display will come to
life, showing the same background as the primary one. Check Figure 1,
where the primary monitor is selected.
|
|
| Figure 1: Primary adapter selected |
Notice that the box "extend my windows desktop...", at the bottom,
is grayed out. This happens because the primary display is selected, and
this option does not apply to it. When clicking on the picture of the
second monitor, it is selected and the box is now accessible.
First, let’s specify color depth and screen resolution
for the second monitor. Windows
treats them independently. The
resolution, color depth and Advanced button on the Settings tab apply to each
adapter individually. First, you
select the adapter, and then work the controls.
On the Settings tab, click and hold on the secondary or
monitor number 2. A big “2”
will appear on the secondary display. If
you do the same on monitor number one, a big “1” will appear on the primary
display. This helps locate the
position of monitors, and Windows is seeing them, in a multiple-monitor
environment. Also, when you click
on the picture of a display, it will be highlighted.
In order words, it is selected. You
can now drag the resolution control or select the desired color depth for this
adapter. Click “apply” for the
changes to be saved. If you select
different screen resolutions for each monitor, the pictures will resemble that:
one will be bigger than the other. These
pictures represent the desktop size (800x600, 1024x768, etc.), and not the
actual screen size (14”, 15”, 17”, etc.), which does not mean much to
Windows. If you have monitors of
different sizes, for example, a 17” and a 15”, setting a smaller desktop or
resolution for the narrower monitor might make it easier when positioning them
in relation to each other, as shown below.
Next, let’s have Windows know where the secondary
monitor is physically located. In
default configuration, the second display shows up at the right side of the
primary one. Of course, it
doesn’t have to be there physically. It
can be located on the right side, left side, above, below, right and above, left
and below, just like the figures above, where the second monitor is on the left
and a bit higher. (It can obviously not be
located in front of or behind the primary display.)
To position the secondary display, click and drag its
figure on the Settings tab. If both
monitors are of the same type and model, drag the second monitor to the right
position, making sure it is aligned with the primary one. Click “apply”. Move
the mouse pointer towards the second monitor.
The pointer will “cross” the desktop, disappearing from one monitor
and appearing on the second, on the same horizontal alignment.
It can’t be simpler than that. :)
If the second monitor is from a different brand, or
model, or size, the screens will usually not be at the same height.
When you move the mouse pointer to the other monitor, it might show up a
bit below or higher then it should on the target display.
No problem. Click and drag
any monitor to the position above or below as related to the other one as it
appears in reality. Click
“apply” and move the mouse pointer between displays.
If the pointer doesn’t show up in the exact horizontal alignment,
repeat the procedure, dragging the monitor a bit up or a bit down, and clicking
“apply” each time. The final
horizontal alignment might not be 100% perfect, but it will sure be close
enough.
If you disable the secondary monitor by clearing the box
that says, “extend my desktop…” in the Settings tab and click “yes”,
the position settings will be lost. You
will have to virtually position the second monitor again, when enabling it.
By selecting the display and clicking the “advanced”
button on the Settings tab, you will have access to settings such as adapter
frequency, display type, and color scheme for each adapter.
Modify at will.
Screensavers and wallpapers are defined to the whole desktop, and not to
individual displays. Hence, only
one screensaver and wallpaper can be selected to operate on all displays.
Not all screensavers support multiple monitors.
Those that don’t will work on the primary display, while the secondary
display remains blank. Wallpapers will show on both displays. If the wallpaper depends on Active Desktop to be properly
shown, however, the active content will appear only on the primary display
(usually figures or hot areas to click). The
secondary display will show the background image.
Using the Power
Now it is time to use the magic. The
secondary display acts as an extension of the desktop.
Anything you can do on the primary display, you can do on the secondary,
but 3D acceleration (more on this further in this article).
The taskbar, for instance. It
is positioned, by default, on the bottom of the primary display.
You can drag it to any corner of either display.
The icons can also be positioned anywhere, even part on
one display, part on another. However,
with multiple monitors, desktop icons are more subject to problems that will
alter their position against the user’s wish.
Sometimes after a reboot, the user will find all icons scrambled.
Or if the secondary monitor is disabled and the computer is rebooted, or
sometimes after a crash, the last position of the desktop icons might be lost. What
the user will see, when this happens, will be a line of icons on the left side
of the primary display, and another line of icons on the right side.
Don’t waste your time readjusting the icons now.
Every time you reboot Windows, now, the icons will be scrambled again.
You just cannot save their position anymore.
Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #Q232798 titled “Desktop Icons May
Not Appear on a Secondary Monitor“ (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q232/7/98.ASP)
offers the only known solution for this, and as the article states, it is not a
permanent solution either. The
problem might arise again, and the fix offered must be done each time.
For some reason, Windows creates a Registry key named ‘HKEY_USERS\DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Desktop\Old WorkAreas’
on some occasions as described above, and if this key is present, the desktop
icons will be scrambled. The
solution is to run the Registry Editor and remove the key manually.
If the icons’ position is very important to you, as it is to me, and
you don’t simply want to select “arrange icons” every time they are
scrambled, then you need an utility to save your desktop setup, so you can
restore it in case of problems. One
option is the free, excellent PC Magazine WinTidy 95 (http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/pcmag_info.html?fcode=000OCS).
But the real power doesn’t come from desktop icons.
The flexibility for positioning program windows is what gives multiple
monitors the charm. A program window can be dragged to any display and this
position will be saved and restored the next time the program is opened.
If you hit “maximize”, the window will maximize to the display where
the window has most of its portion. And
this state will also be saved and restored, being restored next time the program
is opened. This allows you to
properly select the best setup for your most used programs, and have that setup
every time you call the programs.
Drag and drop works flawlessly between displays.
And you can also stretch a program window across the displays.
You can view several columns of a large spreadsheet or a large drawing
(excellent for AutoCAD or CorelDraw). This
is done by resizing the window to fit both displays.
A window cannot be maximized to two displays, only one at a time.
Several instances of the same program can be opened, depending on the
program. This is true for Microsoft
Word 2000 and most directory managers. They
open individual windows for each instance, instead of nested windows, or
parent/children windows, such as Microsoft Excel 2000.
With Microsoft Word 2000, you can have two documents opened at the same
time, one in each separate display, and perform drag and drop between them.
Or have a spreadsheet in one display and a text document on another, and
drag a table from the spreadsheet to the text document.
In Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, one display may show the edit window and
the other display may be in presentation mode.
You can edit the presentation in one window, and it will be updated
real-time on the other display. Or,
you can view the presentation notes in one display, while the other delivers the
actual presentation. Why Microsoft
Excel 2000 does not allow several instances of itself, while other programs of
the same suite can, it is unknown (and frustrating). But at least an Excel window can be stretched across the two
displays, and the user can let each display show a different worksheet.
A problem that might arise is when the secondary display is disabled, and
the user opens a program that was set up to open on the secondary display.
In this situation, the program will open, but its window will be hidden
and inaccessible, concealed in the place where the second monitor should be.
The application can only be seen by its button in the Taskbar.
This can be considered a bug in Windows 98, but, on the other hand, this
behavior avoids that the position of the program window be lost unnecessarily.
For example, if the user only disabled the secondary display temporarily.
Enabling the secondary display reestablishes access to the hidden window,
but if the user does not wish, or cannot, enable the secondary display, here is
a fix. Click onto the
application’s button on the Taskbar with the right mouse button.
Select “move” in the menu that opens.
With the keyboard arrow keys, and only with the keyboard arrow keys, move
the window until it is visible on the primary display.
Press Enter when satisfied. If
the “move” option is not available, select “restore” first, and then
select “move”.
What about PrintScreen? If
you press the PrintScreen key, an instant picture of the whole, extended
desktop, will be placed into the clipboard.
Exactly as it is set up in the Settings tab of Display Properties.
“Okay! So
I can now grab those action games of mine and spread them across two monitors,
or have multiple views opened at the same time!
Front, back, radar! I will
rock!!” Unfortunately, this is
not that simple.
Games usually use 3D acceleration. And
only the primary card can be accelerated, either in DirectX or OpenGL.
Furthermore, acceleration requires full screen mode.
This means a 3D-accelerated game can only be run on the primary display
and in full screen mode. You cannot
access the secondary display from the game, unless the game specifically
supports multiple monitors (such as Microsoft Flight Simulator 98/2000).
But there are more limitations and problems.
OpenGL drivers do not support multiple monitors at all and cannot even
run when a second monitor is enabled. If
you run an OpenGL-accelerated game when you have all monitors enabled, such as
Quake 2 or Quake 3, the game will post an error message or simply default to
software emulation. The OpenGL
driver will refuse to engage. The only way to engage OpenGL is to disable the second
monitor in Display Properties, Settings tab, by clearing the box “extend my
desktop…”. If the box is grayed
out, make sure you select the secondary display by clicking on its picture.
Now the trick: if you hit “ok”, the position settings for the displays
will be lost. You will have to
position them all over again. So,
just hit “apply” and the second monitor will go blank.
Leave the Display Properties window open and run the game.
OpenGL will work normally. When
done playing, re-enable the second monitor by checking the “extend my
desktop” box and hitting “ok”. You
can perform this action every time you want to momentarily disable the second
display, without losing the settings. The
advanced settings regarding the adapter are never lost, however, unless the
adapter is removed from Device Manager.
DirectX is not so problematic. A
DirectX-accelerated game can be run full screen on the primary display while the
secondary is enabled without problems. Sometimes
you can even drag the mouse pointer out of the game and into the secondary
display. If you click something
there, the game will immediately go out of full screen mode or will minimize.
Depending on the game, that might lead to very interesting misbehaviors.
So, just do some experimentation and find out what can be done.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 98/2000 is one example of game that supports
multiple monitors. You can open
other windows within the game, undock them and drag them to the secondary
display. You can have, for
instance, a cockpit view on the primary display and an instrument panel on the
secondary, or a map view. The catch
is that if the undocked window requires acceleration, it will not work on the
secondary display. When you drag
this window to the secondary display, it will show nothing.
This happens as long as the primary display is running accelerated.
If you put the game into window mode, disabling acceleration, then all
windows will work. But performance will decrease significantly.
The game will generally run so slow that it will not be worth it, unless
for brief moments or if the secondary adapter is very fast in 2D.
If the undocked window does not required acceleration, it will work fine
on the secondary display, while the first remains accelerated.
Performance decrease won’t be very high.
Operating multiple monitors puts more overhead on the
CPU, which must now control two or more video adapters. Having two applications running at the same time in
independent displays represent more overhead than running them at the same time
in one display. The reason is that
both programs must be shown simultaneously when in multiple monitors.
In a one-monitor configuration, one program is on top of the other one,
or they occupy less desktop space. Hence,
a reduction in performance is expected when having windows in multiple monitors. This is hardly noticeable, though, unless the applications
are heavily display-active (showing many 2D animations), or the adapters have
poor 2D performance. And the slight
decrease in performance is greatly overcome by the enormous gain in productivity
that working with multiple monitors represent.
Since the second adapter does not use hardware
acceleration, it does not have to be a state-of-the-art or top-performance video
adapter. Just any average
performance card will do, even an old or replaced card.
Save the top-performance to the primary card.
If an application requires fast video, relocate it to the primary
display, and leave still-display applications to the secondary card.
The only problem might be: when used to working with multiple monitors, users faced with
single-monitor computers will feel as though having to ride bicycles instead of
driving V8 cars.