Comments on: How do I setup dual monitors in Windows Vista?

By: John

John — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:16:39 +0000

I have Vista Business SP2 with latest patches installed. When I try to setup dual monitor with two Acer G195HHQL monitors , My system does not recognise both as Acer G195H, It recognises one as ACER and the other as Generic Non PnP monitor. ( I have nvidia GEForce 7300 LE card with quadcore, 2GB as hardware).

what should I do to make the system recognise both as Acer monitors?

By: Sootah

Sootah — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:27:39 +0000

@Mike – You may be able to use you nVidia 9400 to drive one display and then your motherboard’s integrated graphics controller to drive the other.

The biggest IF in the statement is whether or not your BIOS insists on the integrated graphics being disabled when a third-party graphics card is installed. I personally have set up many dual head systems this way (Many MANY times while as a network admin at an internet marketing coaching company).

The easiest way to tell if you can do this is to simply go into your device manager and see if more than one graphics adapter enabled. Here is an example of this in my setup on Windows 7:

If this is the case, then just plug another monitor into your integrated graphics DSUB or DVI port and then see if you can extend the desktop onto that display in the Windows display settings.

By: Sootah

Sootah — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:06:32 +0000

Here is a better lit picture of my previous triple head display – showing the dual Samsung 216BW displays, as well as the Samsung 46″ LN46A750 Television.

I used this setup for quite some time, including after I upgraded to Windows 7 (which I am a big fan of, by the way). At the moment we are looking at having Vizio send us one of their XVT472SV 42″ TrueLED dynamic back-lit televisions to review. After figuring out which displays we get in have the best display quality then it will get used as my third head again. I miss having triple displays.. :)

You’d be surprised at just how helpful it is to have that when you’re doing web application programming. You can have Visual Studio, Adobe Dreamweaver, Eclipse, or whatever open on one monitor; some coding references or a web browser open on your secondary monitor; and then the various FTP and other misc. tools up on the third. For some reason I utterly loath having to tab through open applications. I’d MUCH rather have them all visible and accessible that way.

By: James

James — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:53:42 +0000

I recently upgraded from XP media Center to Vista Ultimate, my dual monitor setup worked fine on XP but for some reason Vista Ultimate will not rgister two monitors and every time i do updates it switches my monitors, lol conspiracy??? HELP!!!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:01:16 +0000

hey. my nvidia 9400 has one slot for monitors, but i was wondering if i could just use integrated graphics to run my second monitor. thanks

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:57:32 +0000

I have a dell inspirion 530S and I am trying to set it up with a dual monitor. I went to display settings and it show Monitor 1 and Monitor 2. I set Monitor 1 just like you said. When I click on Monitor 2 and click the extended to desk and then I try to change the resolution, it will not allow me to change the resolution. I click apply and it asks me “Do I want to keep these changes” and I clicked yes. But when you move Monitor #2 to the left of Monitor #1 it asks me do I want to enable it; I clicked yes and then apply. But for some reason, after you click apply; it show Monitor #2 as disabled? Help, Please.

By: Dan Shavalier

Dan Shavalier — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:04:06 +0000

Thanks for the simple answer to something that I had never done on my new Vista but was working fine when I plugged another monitor in.

The “problem” is – - – It just quit working ‘overnight’ (literally).

Thanks again,
Dan

By: Sootah

Sootah — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:54:05 +0000

Update – I’ve moved since the previous post showing my Samsung LN46A750 television setup as my third display. That television is now used in another room, and I have a 19″ wide aspect-ratio Dell E198WFPf LCD monitor in its place.

This display (top right in the screenshot below) is hooked up to my new IOGEAR GCS632U 2-Port USB KVM. This makes it incredibly easy to work on multiple machines using the same monitor, mouse, and keyboard as my primary desktop computer.

If you’ve not tried a multi-machine setup this way – I highly recommend it. Not only does it free up desk space, but it also makes the actual hookup of extra computers far easier. All I have to do is plug the KVM’s secondary cable set into the computer I’m working on and then I simply hit scroll lock twice in rapid succession to switch back and forth between the two computers. I have a third monitor and workbench monitor all wrapped up into one tidy package!

If any of you do decide to use a KVM, then IOGear is the ONLY way to go. I’ve had Belkin and Linksys KVMs previous to the GCS632U, and they simply don’t work that well. The IOGear, on the other hand, works flawlessly.

By: Sootah

Sootah — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:05:05 +0000

No, a splitter will not work for desktop extension. It will only display the same thing on both ports because it is only duplicating the display to both.

In order to get real dual monitors working you’ll need to get another video card with more than one D-Sub or DVI port. Alternatively, you may be able to install a second video card with just one video out port on it and hook your other monitor up to that assuming that your motherboard will allow both the onboard video adapter and an aftermarket one to work at the same time.

By: LF

LF — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:24:58 +0000

Does this work if you use a splitter? I have managed to get 2 monitors but only displaying the same thing – can’t get one to be an extension of the other (and on the NVidia control panel, the 2nd monitor isn’t recognised).