Vista & dual monitors

[cotswoldcs]

I previously asked a similar question in this thread but didn't find answers to all of my questions and wondered if asking it again here might help. Apologies if you've seen this all before.

I use a dual monitor setup (with an nVidia based 6600GT dual DVI) every day and would really miss the nView toolbar if I moved from XP to Vista. Actually, that's putting it mildly - the single biggest reason why I don't use Vista as my main OS is the lack of driver support from nVidia! So here are a few questions:

1. Do you think nVidia will ever release a Vista driver that includes the nView toolbar? I appreciate that it might take a long time

2. If not do AMD/ATI cards support a similar feature in Vista? I know that XP drivers included Hydravision which in my opinion wasn't as good as nView but did at least allow switching of windows to different displays.

3. Do you run a dual monitor setup on Vista with an nVidia card? How do you get on without the nView toolbar and other features (nView desktop)???

4. Dare I ask about 3rd party software in desperation?? What about Ultramon or anything else?

[plmokmm]

Im using a dual monitor setup, with vista ultimate and an 8800gts. The dual-monitors work fine just using the nvidia control panel to look after them. There are some problems with drivers but mainly with gameplay issues not with dual-monitor setup. I Dont know about nview as i haven't tried it yet. Hope this helps a little.

[cotswoldcs]

Thanks for your response. I've found the current Vista driver limiting and really miss the nView toolbar. Even things like running two different wallpaper images on two screens still isn't possible which is a small but annoying problem.

Is anyone running multiple displays with an ATI card? Does Hydravision (or its Vista equivalent) work?

[bobbyzero]

I've just upgraded to Vista, and it's like stepping back in time a year or two when I look at the nVidia control panel! Where have the interactive colour balancing, contrast, brightness etc. gone?

Ultramon will handle your wallpaper requirements. I saw you didn't want to go 3rd party, but it depends how patient you are for the drivers to be feature complete! It's worth it in my opinion for the hotkey setting to swap windows between screens.

[cotswoldcs]

I'd have to agree with you bobbyzero and it's the principle reason why I'm not using Vista as my main OS (I dual boot with XP).

The question is, with Vista's heightened security will we ever get the functionality and features we have with XP?

I would love to hear from an ATI user running Vista. What's the situation with driver support for ATI cards? Does Hydravision (or its Vista equivalent) work?

Different wallpapers would be very nice but for me what is essential is a button, hotkey, or mouse click to "push" windows to the second display (and vice versa). Clicking & dragging seems soooo archaic!!!

[Spud1]

I have to reccomend ultramon for this job 100% - its a requirment for me these days when it comes to running multiple monitors..I don't use the wallpaper support as I dont use any atm, but I have done in the past and it works well - you can setup hotkeys for different papers too.

The best thing about it though is the smart taskbar..giving you a separate taskbar for each monitor so its easy to tell which apps are running on which screen. Its well worth the £20 for a licence, and fully supports Vista too.

It also gives you a hotkey and/or a button in the window title bar to push a window to different monitors, or stretch a window accross multiple monitors if you fancy doing so (I use that mode for outlook, to have my mail messages on one screen and a list of messages + the folder bar on the other)

I'm using an ATI card btw, and have never bothered to try hydravision as I have an ultramon licence..but if you give me a list of features you want I will try them with ultramon, and can even install hydravision to see how it works if you like

edit: here is an example of the smart taskbar.. I have IE, poker chat, Visual Studio and notepad on my left monitor/taskbar, and TVR, poker table and Perforce on the right hand monitor/taskbar

[bobbyzero]

I've set a hotkey combo set up that swaps windows between primary and secondary monitors. Then I bound a mouse button (the 'search' button on my MX Revolution) to the keypress and voila, instant control.

[cotswoldcs]

Thanks for your help Spud1. I will have to have a look at Ultramon - I assume I can try it for a month before paying for it? Can you show me a screenshot of a couple of windows open so that I can see what it looks like with the window open. Do you get a button on each window like I have with my nView toolbar?

Small version:
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...ldcs/nview.jpg
Large Version:
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...s/nview2-1.jpg

Attached is a screenshot of my Desktop with a couple of apps running to show what I mean by the nView toolbar for anyone not familiar with it. The buttons are (L to R) Properties, Shrink to title bar, switch to next display and maximise to Desktop (1 window over two displays).

Thanks for your help. Any more information would be really helpful.

Another question - it used to be that years ago 2D quality was superior with ATI cards than nVidia cards. Do you think there is a difference now and if 2D quality was of primary concern would it influence your choice of graphics card. What about between manufacturers? Would quality differ between Asus and BFG or Sapphire for example?

[Mousemat]

Can anyone tell me if this program is capable of automatically displaying full screen video on a second monitor?

[cotswoldcs]

I can choose which display to play a movie on by simply moving the player to that display. I've been able to do this with the nVidia driver installed (XP - not tried on Vista TBH).

[bobbyzero]

Ultramon installs an extra panel in the properties dialog that lets you force a program to open on a specific monitor. Not sure if this is possible for file associations though.

[cjhoyle]

cotswoldcs, I'm in the exact same boat as you my friend.

I was extremely happy with my dual VGA nvidia card on my XP computer. I am just starting at university in the fall, so i purchased a brand new desktop computer, complete with an nvidia 7300 LE card, along with two 19 inch ws monitors. I was very disappointed to discover that vista did not support the Nview toolbar.

I don't know how far you've gotten with UltraMon, but i downloaded the trial of it (based on the advise from this thread). It does include the option for having the buttons to switch to the next desktop, and go to full screen mode, however the buttons do not actually appear on the windows. I was frustrated by this at first, but then discovered that the feature is still there, the images for the buttons just arent visible.. in other words if you click in the space next to the minimize button, where the buttons should be, the action still takes place.

So in conclusion UltraMon will give you back the NView Toolbar features, it just requires some estimation, as to where the buttons are.

[bobbyzero]

If you switch off Aero the buttons appear.. but why would you?

There's also the same options available if you right click the task bar buttons, or click on the window icon in the top left.

[cjhoyle]

Update: I haven`t touched Aero at all, I`m starting to get used to just imagining where the button is. Yesterday, I was using Excel and I discovered that the UltraMon Buttons do appear for MS Office windows, but only when you hover near where the buttons are.

Does anyone know how long, or what the restriction is with the UltraMon trial version? (I don`t see it printed anywhere on their site)

[bobbyzero]

30 days, isn't it?

Trial version limitations: the trial period is limited to 30 days, the software is otherwise fully functional.
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/download.asp