Window Management

Smart Taskbar

Shortcuts

Display Profiles

Desktop Wallpaper

Screen savers

Mirroring

Scripting

Other Features

 Window management

Moving windows is a common task on multi-monitor systems, and VT MultiDisplay makes it easier and more efficient.

With custom window buttons, you can move a window to a different monitor with the click of a button. You can also easily maximize a window to the desktop (stretch it across all monitors). This is especially useful for applications with lots of windows, such as Adobe Photoshop or Premiere, or large spreadsheets.

VT MultiDisplay also adds the ability to move maximized windows using the mouse, simply by dragging the title bar as you would any other window. As soon as you start dragging the title bar of a maximized window, the mouse pointer changes to the move cursor, and the window is moved to the monitor on which you release the mouse.

In addition to custom window buttons, VT MultiDisplay can also add custom menu commands to the window (or system) menu of applications. The custom menu commands add the same functionality as the window buttons.

If you have more than 2 monitors, the 'move to monitor' command will open a dialog that lets you select the desired monitor.

You can also use the keyboard for moving and maximizing windows. The following hotkeys are available:

• Move window to next monitor
• Move window to previous monitor
• Move window to primary monitor
• Maximize or restore window to desktop

 Smart Taskbar

If you often have multiple applications open at the same time, the Smart Taskbar will help you manage them efficiently, by adding additional taskbars for each secondary monitor.

You can choose between two modes:

• Standard: each taskbar only shows applications from the monitor it is on, so you won't have to search for an application after activating it. If you move an application to a different monitor, its taskbar button will be moved to the corresponding taskbar
  
• Mirror: each taskbar shows all tasks, allowing you to quickly switch tasks on any monitor

VT MultiDisplay does not replace the Windows taskbar, it simply adds one or more additional taskbars. For example, you can use the Windows taskbar on the primary monitor, and VT MultiDisplay taskbars on your secondary monitors.

Right-clicking the taskbar lets you adjust the settings.

Below is a screenshot of the Smart Taskbar running in standard mode on a 2-monitor system, on the left monitor the Windows taskbar, on the right monitor an VT MultiDisplay taskbar. There are two applications running on each monitor. Click the image for a full-size screenshot.

If you have enabled the custom window menu commands, you can right-click a task's button and move it to a different monitor directly, without having to switch to the application first:

 Shortcuts

With VT MultiDisplay, you can create shortcuts that open programs on a specific monitor or at a specific position, and optionally change display settings before launching the application and restoring them when you close the application. You can access shortcuts directly from the VT MultiDisplay menu, or save them as standard Windows shortcuts and access them from the desktop, Quick Launch or Start menu.

Additionally, you can also simply open the properties of an existing Windows shortcut and adjust window positioning and display settings on the additional tabs added by VT MultiDisplay. Below is a screenshot of the VT MultiDisplay window settings tab. Integration with Windows Explorer is optional and can be disabled from the VT MultiDisplay Options dialog.

The following screenshots show the various shortcut settings that can be configured.

 Display Profiles

Display profiles make it easy to switch between different desktop configurations. A profile stores the display mode, position and state (enabled/disabled) of each monitor, as well as which monitor is primary (changing the primary is only supported on Windows 2000/XP and later). If your computer is used by more than one person, you can use display profiles to set up custom display configurations for each user. Whenever a user logs in, his or her display settings will be applied. Windows XP Fast User Switching is supported.

 Desktop Wallpaper

By default, you are limited to using the same background image on each monitor. With VT MultiDisplay, you can use a single image for the whole desktop, or different images for each monitor. In addition, you can also create gradient color backgrounds.

The following screenshot shows a wallpaper using a single image stretched across the desktop:

More examples:

Wallpaper using a different image on each monitor

Wallpaper using a different gradient on each monitor

 Screen Savers

Most screen savers don't work with multiple monitors: they only run on the primary monitor, leaving the other monitors unprotected.

VT MultiDisplay solves this problem by blanking all secondary monitors while the screen saver runs on the primary monitor. The screen saver once again does its job, and your data is protected while you are away from your desk.

But VT MultiDisplay can do even more: you can have a different screen saver on each monitor! The following screenshot shows a 3-monitor system with a different screen saver on each monitor:

In addition, VT MultiDisplay also enables you to run hardware-accelerated OpenGL screen savers, even if your system has no OpenGL acceleration when secondary monitors are enabled. To enable this feature, go to the Options tab and check 'disable secondary monitors'. You can now select any OpenGL screen saver for the primary monitor. VT MultiDisplay will disable secondary monitors before the screen saver starts, and re-enable them when the screen saver stops.

You can easily launch and configure screen savers from the VT MultiDisplay menu:

 Mirroring

Mirroring, also called cloning, means showing the same thing on 2 or more monitors.

Some applications for mirroring:

• Presentations, with the same presentation being shown on both a monitor for the presenter and a projector for the audience
• Showing documents on a second monitor to a client who is sitting opposite of you

VT MultiDisplay offers a very flexible software mirroring solution:

• mirror to one or more monitors
• use different resolutions for the mirror source and destination monitor
• source and destination monitors can be driven by different video cards

Here is a screenshot of the mirror settings dialog, configured to mirror monitor 1 (the primary monitor) on monitor 2.

In addition to fullscreen mirroring, it is also possible to mirror a monitor to a small window (Monitor Preview feature).

If you need to mirror video/DVD or 3D applications: this may or may not work, depending on the application and operating system

 Scripting

For advanced users: support for scripting gives you access to VT MultiDisplay's powerful features from your own VBScript, JScript or other Windows Script files.

The following VBScript code toggles the enabled state of the second monitor:

Const POS_ALL = &H7

Set sys = CreateObject("VT MultiDisplay.System")
Set mon = sys.Monitors("2")

If mon.Enabled = True Then
	sys.SavePositions POS_ALL
	mon.Enabled = False
	sys.ApplyMonitorChanges
Else
	mon.Enabled = True
	sys.ApplyMonitorChanges
	sys.RestorePositions POS_ALL
End If

See the scripting section of the VT MultiDisplay Help for more information.

 Other Features

Preserve position of desktop icons
Depending on your system configuration, you may experience the problem that desktop icons don't stay where you put them after restarting the system. VT MultiDisplay fixes this problem by automatically restoring desktop icons to their previous positions when VT MultiDisplay starts.

Disable or enable secondary monitors
You can quickly disable or enable secondary monitors from the VT MultiDisplay menu or with a hotkey. When re-enabling secondary monitors, windows are moved back to their original positions.

Change the primary monitor (Windows 2000/XP and later)
Enables you to quickly change the primary monitor from the VT MultiDisplay menu.

Custom Display Properties applet
A more powerful replacement for Display Properties with support for quickly changing refresh rate and disabling/enabling secondary monitors. Also supports exact positioning of monitors by entering coordinates directly. Unlike Windows Display Properties, more than 10 monitors can be configured.

Hotkeys
Various hotkeys are available:

• Move window to next/previous or primary monitor
• Maximize window to monitor or desktop
• Center mouse on primary monitor
• Move mouse to next/previous monitor
• Disable or enable secondary monitors
• Launch screen saver
• Run application or script
• Launch VT MultiDisplay shortcut
• Apply display profile
• Lock mouse to active window or primary monitor