Windows Question - Monitor Display

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Mylegsbig

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I have two monitors and my friend set it up so that they are like one large screen ...ie you can drag one window to the other screen, etc

How can i change it so when i play a game or open an application it only opens on one of the screens? I only want my games and apps to open on the left screen....this is Windows XP...thanks in advance guys
 
here is a pic of it...

img_497599_0_59bd46b8633481f9c35306903b283254.jpg
 
you need to change the set up in your video card.

you must have a dual output video card, so you have to go into the settings for it to tell it to turn off the dual display.

often, there is an icon in your task bar on the lower right, next to the time, that if you right click, it will aloow you to acces the video adapter settings.
 
It depends on how it is set up, but for starters you can right click on the desktop then click on properties and then click on the setting tab. You should be able to switch it there (I think).
 
It should be a setting in your video card’s drivers. Right click on the desktop and then click on either “Properties” or a video “Control Panel” (such as NVIDIA) that may be present. Then change the settings there. You’re looking for extended desktop modes or monitor modes. If Clone Mode is an option, it will mirror the same image on both monitors which is one way of doing it, but defeats the purpose of two monitors. Span will stretch it across both which is what you have now. There may be other modes available depending on who made the card and driver. There should be a setting for setting which monitor is considered primary. Set it to your left monitor.

However, because of the way games work with DirectX, this will still be a less than ideal setup. When the game runs, it will set the display of the primary monitor to its native resolution which will cause a resolution shift in your right (secondary) monitor. Icons and applications will often shift off the screen. This means that basically, the second monitor isn’t very useful when playing a game that takes control of the desktop resolution. A workaround to this is to set the resolution of the primary monitor to the games resolution before playing so that there is no shift, or just deal with it as the resolution will return to normal once the game has been minimized (ALT+ESC) or ended.

Some times, the only way to do this is to turn off the secondary monitor before you start the game. It really depends on the card and your driver.
 
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