Which monitor?

[StuartR]

To get the mouse to move between monitors:

In the image that you have displayed you can click and drag the image of monitor 2 to put it in the correct logical place. For example if the physical screen is to the left of your main desktop screen then drag the image to put the logical screen in that position.

You can how simply move the mouse in a continuous motion across the one extended desktop.

[JoeP]

Note the Snap feature in Windows 7 to automatically have an application take 1/2 of the screen. See Windows 7 Features: Snap for details.

Joe

[stuck]

What *is* the advantage of two monitors?

As Stuart says

The main advantage is the ability to SEE multiple documents at the same time.

I have two 21" widescreen monitors here at work. On one I run Outlook & Explorer. Firefox usually runs in the other because the main app I use is a custom ColdFusion db that runs inside FF. As required open Word, Excel, etc. The ability to see two or three things all at the same time, without clicking to bring the one you want to the top is just sooooooooo much easier. Think about it. In the real world you wouldn't pile all your papers on top of each other on your desk and leaf through them as required, you would spread them out.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

... drag the image of monitor 2 to put it in the correct logical place.

yee-HAH!
I had the screens R-L instead of L-R.
OK. I feel good that I felt it OUGHT to work.

I can hardly type, I'm so excited.

(A wave of relief sweeps over EileensLounge .....)

[ChrisGreaves]

See Windows 7 Features: Snap for details.

Thanks Joe. Now I'm almost as good as Hans (grin).

BTW, you guys don't fool me at all.
You're just trying to make me like Windows 7 .....

[ChrisGreaves]

The ability to see two or three things all at the same time, without clicking to bring the one you want to the top is just sooooooooo much easier.

Absolutely. For years I have preached "Maximize your windows and use Alt-Tab" to encourage people to make the best use of their eyes & brain. removing the need to Alt-Tab (or click) makes recognition so much faster, and that usually means better.

I am guessing that multiple monitors has been around for quite a while, but I've never tumbled to it.
Or perhaps my older laptop didn't have the capability.

Who uses three monitors?

In the real world you wouldn't pile all your papers on top of each other on your desk and leaf through them as required, you would spread them out.

Right! (You knew this was coming ...)

HPIM3577 [320x200].JPG

[HansV]

Yes, with Extended Desktop the mouse moves between the two screens - just move it to the right edge of the left-side monitor and it slides over to the left edge of the right-side monitor. There's usually a dialog where you can specify the relative position of the two screens. It depends on the graphics card/driver.

[stuck]

Who uses three monitors?

Not many but at least one person in our IT had three monitors on their PC, until they got two widescreens. I even had three on mine briefly (but only because I was checking that the third graphic card was OK).

Ken

[DaveA]

I have seen a gamer machine with 6 monitors, but of course a gamer would need to see all around ones self. Like having eyes in the back of ones head.

[ChrisGreaves]

I even had three on mine briefly

So someone, somewhere, is working on a scheme for holographic monitors that would float in the air in front of us, and for each application we open - word processor, spreadsheet, browser, mail, Juice etc - a new holographic monitor would appear.
The region in front of use would start to resemble the control room at CFTO-TV.

Two days after this delivery MSoft would announce a new version of Windows and we would all have to throw away our scanners, printers, DOS programs again.

A week later out would come the holographic mouse - a 3D-spatial device - that would let us surround our heads with layers of concentric spheres of monitors.

Two days after this delivery MSoft would announce a new version of Windows and we would all have to throw away our scanners, printers, DOS programs again.

(rinse and repeat)

[ChrisGreaves]

I have seen a gamer machine with 6 monitors, but of course a gamer would need to see all around ones self. Like having eyes in the back of ones head.

Great minds think alike, Dave. Our posts crossed!

BTW my mother did have eyes in the back of her head. Or so I thought until I was 35 years old.
Turns out she just waited until she could hear no noise coming from me, wherever I was, and she'd call out "Christopher! Stop doing that!".

[ChrisGreaves]

... Excel on the external monitor, and ... Word on the laptop screen.

I really think you might have warned me about the brain tremors I was destined to receive.
My main screen is the large DELL CRT, directly in front of me; the laptop is the auxiliary screen off to the left.

When I open Word, Word opens up on the auxiliary screen, presumably because that's where last it opened up.
When I issue an Alt-F through the keyboard, the file menu opens up over Word, on the auxiliary screen.
But the Word dialog box pops up on the main screen.

My eyes are, of course, focused on the other screen: "Where's my File, open dialog?" or at the very least

(I'm still loving every minute of it. Thanks, Y'all, for this new freedom!)

[HansV]

BTW my mother did have eyes in the back of her head.

In the eighties of the last century, I was a high school maths teacher. In those days, glasses were HUGE.

One day, I was writing a formula on the blackboard (with a piece of chalk - younger readers are referred to Chalkboard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). I could see part of the classroom reflected in my glasses, and saw a student (let's call him Johnny) stretch his arm, clearly preparing to throw something. I kept on writing and said in a very calm, low tone of voice "I wouldn't do that, Johnny".

The class was stunned...

[HansV]

But the Word dialog box pops up on the main screen.

Fortunately, if you move it to the other screen, it'll open there next time too - even after rebooting.

[stuck]

The author Terry Prachet has a 3x2 array of monitors.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

... said in a very calm, low tone of voice "I wouldn't do that, Johnny".

Shortly after that I changed my name to Chris Greaves and moved to Canada, adopted two cats, ...

[stuck]

I kept on writing and said in a very calm, low tone of voice "I wouldn't do that, Johnny".

The class was stunned...

In a previous life I too was a school teacher (chemistry) and I too used that sort of trick, though not with glasses. If I noticed mischief in the making and was confident the perpetrator hadn't seem I was on to them I would turn my back and then admonish them. Never failed.

Ken

[ChrisGreaves]

The author Terry Prachet ... 3x2 array of monitors.

Yeah.
I really hate people like that.
That is similar to my correspondent's set up in appearance, except my guy had 6 computers, at least one of which was a Mac! They were all different sizes (netbook, notebook, mac, laptop, proper monitor etc.) but he claimed he could do things wondrous with his setup.
Myself I think he was just a Hans-wannabe.

[wasbit]

Just browse Google Images - Multi monitor screens
- http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dojp2a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ChrisGreaves]

... the third graphic card was OK

I've been thinking about this.
My notebook has a graphic card, hard-wired to the notebook screen, and with an outlet (19?25?pin) off to the side.
I plug a monitor into the outlet and have two monitors with all the benefits described in this thread.

What happens in a desktop computer?
It has a graphics card with only the outlet off to the side. Into that outlet I plug a monitor. it has been that millennially.
Now if I add a second graphics card to the desktop, what happens?

Can the two cards talk to each other?
Does the motherboard manage them both?
How does "extended display" work when it is two graphics cards each with a monitor, as distinct from (notebook) one graphics card controlling two monitors?

My follow-up question will, of course, be about 3 graphics cards (grin!)