Tips For The Multi-Display Life

[mitch074]

I use a dual screen setup at work - but that's because I had an extra screen available and I wanted to put it to good use.

Well, it's rather good - but virtual workspaces with fast switching are still a luxury no amount of screens can solve.

Oh, right - none of that to be found on Windows...

 

[drethon]

[citation][nom]mitch074[/nom]I use a dual screen setup at work - but that's because I had an extra screen available and I wanted to put it to good use.Well, it's rather good - but virtual workspaces with fast switching are still a luxury no amount of screens can solve.Oh, right - none of that to be found on Windows...[/citation]

Linux would be fine if it would run my games properly (yes I've tried Wine, no luck). Stuck between an OS monopoly and gaming monopolies (so to speak).

 

[Guest]

I'm running a 30" with a 24" monitor and love it. I am looking to adding another video card and then another 24" monitor.

 

[eburdick]

In many companies, the dual monitor question is very political for some reason. We used dual monitors on UNIX at one company as far back as the early 90s, when a 21" monitor was a major investment, both in money and in heat generated. We designed our CAD tools to take advantage of the extra space for a significant productivity improvement. When we were acquired by a different large company, the only people who got it were the engineers and the finance(!) people, but they were not about to do battle over this seemingly obvious improvement. The IT support people are still blocking it today.

 

[eburdick]

By the way, I have been using two 1600x1200 21" LCD monitors at home for many years. I do a lot of photo editing, and use one screen for my work surface and the other for controls, browser windows, etc. I use VNC to put LINUX and MAC screens on my XP monitors, so I can do multiple platform web work on one workstation. Like many people, before I retired, my home environment was better than my work environment.

 

[manitoublack]

Linux is, stands for "Linux is not Unix" Mac is jsut short for Macintosh.

Run 2x24" 1920x1200 Silicon Graphic CRT's!
Nothing comes close except maybe this: http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T221

The IBM-T221, a 22" LCD from 2001, with a native resolution of 3840x2400. http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T221 Best price I've seen one for recently is $1000USD, one is on eBay now for 2000EUR. and no, nothing can play Crysis at the resolution

 

[TidalWaveOne]

I have a 5 monitor setup, including two 30" 2560x1600 monitors. UltraMon is a must and so is color calibration. I use a Spyder3 Pro.

 

[TidalWaveOne]

[citation][nom]hurfburf[/nom]Was this written in 1999? Because that's the last time I used a computer with one monitor.[/citation]

Some people are still living in 1999. This article is for them.

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

[citation][nom]TidalWaveOne[/nom]Some people are still living in 1999. This article is for them.[/citation]
I'd love to do a poll to find out what % of Tom's Guide readers are working/living with a 2 monitor system. I bet it is lower than you think. I happen to know that we have a lot of readers who use laptops 100% of the time...

 

[hella-d]

I Am Currently Running A 20" S-IPS Dell 2001FP, And A Sanyo 19" HDTV Monitor, I Do Alot Of Movie/Hulu Watching While Net Surfing Or Other Tasks, Or WOW On My 20" While A Movie/Hulu Is Playing And When Im Gaming A FPS, Ill Put My Messnger And Temp/Hardware Monitor On My 19" Extremely Handy.

I Plan On Upgrading My Main To A NEC EA231WMI 23" E-IPS And A Secondary NEC EA221WMI 22" TN+Film

-Hella

 

[Guest]

got dual 30 inchs, 2650x1600x2

couldn't live without it.

 

[brasscat]

I have used matrox and dual screens for years on XP. I have used them with Orcad PCB and in programming micro. I do not see much of any comment of the Matrox graphic cards There are 3x DVI and quad DVi PCI x16 cards now, with multimonitor software for XP, vist ah, and 7. They do not seem to rate as game players but I don't play games much. Any other problem mwith matrox?

 

[Ryric]

Interesting article but the tips could be condensed to one page. Very simplistic. Would have liked to see more information for first time multi-users so they can determine their ability to make the switch.

 

[Guest]

Dual displays will most definitely increase ones productivity. The amount of real estate that two monitor stands consume tends to be a little overwhelming. Regain your desk space with an ergonomic mount www.ergotron.com http/www.ergotron.com/Products/MultiMonitorMounts/tabid/159/language/en-US/default.aspx

 

[e_sandrs]

[citation][nom]mitch074[/nom]I use a dual screen setup at work - but that's because I had an extra screen available and I wanted to put it to good use.Well, it's rather good - but virtual workspaces with fast switching are still a luxury no amount of screens can solve.Oh, right - none of that to be found on Windows...[/citation]

Actually, there are a lot of ways to get virtual workspaces on Windows. You can just install the Windows PowerToy to get 4 workspaces, but I mostly use ATI cards in recent history and Hydravision gives you 10 virtual workspaces with the full driver. Other free options abound.

 

[llewllaw]

There's another tool which though not recognized yet as widely as UltraMon or DisplayFusion but can be a good alternative if you target for more functionality than decorations - Actual Multiple Monitors. This utility has such unique features as the Start button and system tray on secondary taskbars, Alt-Tab Task Switcher on all monitors. Also there are some usability features:

- snapping windows to desktop boundaries, to each other and to the specified grid
- dragging taskbar buttons and tray icons with the mouse
- dragging/sizing windows by any point (not only title bar or border frame)
- multi-monitor wallpaper/screensaver support

For its price ($29.95 USD) it appears to be the most functional and handy suite of multi-monitor tools. And it works well on Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

 

[TheDane]

3 monitors is WAY better than dual. Up to 36% more productive with 3 vs. 1 monitor and surround gaming is great.

My setup uses a single GTX 260 + a Matrox TH2GO Digital connected to 3 BenQ 22" monitors. Works like a charm and no need for any additional software such as Ultramon since bezel correction and hotkeys (to move windows to another monitor etc) are standard features.

 

[Guest]

I discovered my card was capable of dual monitors several years ago. I managed to fry that graphics card though, so had to revert back to a spare that would only handle one monitor. The few days it took to get a new card in felt like I had a broken leg. I could never go back.
I usually have World of Warcraft or some other game going on the left, web browsing, temp sensors, chat, ventrilo etc going on the right, and lately, I have my laptop set up to the right of these for videos, music, whatever else I want to do.
I use Input Director to use my mouse and keyboard across all three displays as if I had three monitors. It's free & works beautifully.

 

[Guest]

I just build my self a PC dekstop ( long time mac fan& lover ) i built a pc with a nice asus board ati dual dvi 512mb video card and 2 MATCHING samsung 23" lcd's. Running windows 7. I can't live with out dual monitors with any os, its just so hard to use one and wate time moving things around etc etc. Dual monitors has been around for many many years! Worth it to buy 2 exact monitors, if you can't afford 2 LARG ones, then buy the next size down. But 2 monitors is a must for todays computer living .

 

[dgyp]

I would have loved to see some references as to what I might do with my old 4:3 monitor. With the thousands of people out there getting rid of their old monitor, perhaps there's local schools or some other charity that desperately needs them?

Some will end up in landfill which is a crying shame. Some will be sold on eBay but I'd like to give my 19" to someone who really needs one.