(Help)I want to do this, but what do I need?

[Mr Bean]

I want to be able to watch movies, play various video games and what not on my primary monitor, but be able to still see my desktop on my secondary monitor and be able to slide my mouse over to it and access various programs. Currently I am using Windows XP and running a Nvidia 275 GTX on a 3ghtz Core 2 w/four gigs of ram. I have several open PCI and one PCI-Express slot open and prehaps a hundred dollars to spend on this. I have several LCD monitors sitting around none of which match my primary monitor which is a 25.5 Asus model.

What do I need to do/buy/install to achieve this?

[atg]

As long as that graphics card has two monitor ports (DVI or DSUB, I imagine a 275 would have two DVI ports) you should be able to plug a second monitor straight in, Windows should dectect it and you can select display spanning or cloning via Windows display settings.

Watching movies should work fine on one monitor while using apps on the second, however most games don't work too well doing the same thing.

Edit: correct spelling is good...

[Mr Bean]

Cloning won't do what I want because again I want the second monitor to be a 24/7 desktop display. Spanning won't work unless I can find room for two 25.5 inch displays on my desktop. Again I have several 17 and 19 inch LCD's laying around I want to have a second display. I don't want a span because Windows see's span as one uber-big monitor which games won't work well with.

[Beowulf]

Windows now sees two monitors as completely seperate when spanned. So you can have two different monitors, running at two different resolutions. Just remember to reboot after you plug in the monitor the first time.

[atg]

I don't know of a way to do what you want then. Instead of spanning what I meant was the 'extended desktop' option, doesn't require same sized monitors. In my experience games will work OK under extended desktop (using one of the monitors), but a directx bug means that the second monitor will not display properly. Not to mention mouse/keyboard capture. I don't believe there is a way around it unfortunately to have it as seamless as you want

[JointStrikeFighter]

Though you can get a task bar for the 2nd monitor by using the program "Ultramon"

[Netko]

If the game supports windowed mode properly, you can get what you want by setting the windowed resolution to the display native resolution, and still play it fullscreen with just a slight performance penalty while the other monitor being available for work, which shouldn't be a problem considering your card. My cousin has this setup for WoW and its great, I plan on doing something similar once I find money to build a desktop (currently on laptop only). Even on a single display its sometimes preferable because it gives you full alt-tab functionality without delay.

If the game doesn't support windowed mode properly however, you will have to settle for it disabling your secondary display when they go fullscreen.

In all cases, just plug in a second monitor and see for yourself (extend desktop option), if you already have it available.

[Rahvin]

I want to be able to watch movies, play various video games and what not on my primary monitor, but be able to still see my desktop on my secondary monitor and be able to slide my mouse over to it and access various programs. Currently I am using Windows XP and running a Nvidia 275 GTX on a 3ghtz Core 2 w/four gigs of ram. I have several open PCI and one PCI-Express slot open and prehaps a hundred dollars to spend on this. I have several LCD monitors sitting around none of which match my primary monitor which is a 25.5 Asus model.

What do I need to do/buy/install to achieve this?

You're using Nvidia, so this is easy.

Open up the Nvidia Control Panel (found int eh Control Panel, or right-click on a blank part of your desktop and select it from the context menu), and go to the Set Up Multiple Displays section. You should see a radio button that says ""Configured Independently from each other (Dual View)". Select that.

If you don't see the radio button, reboot your PC - it'll only populate if the PC boots while both monitors are plugged in. If you plugged in the second monitor while the PC was already on, you won't see the option.

After you've selected that option, each monitor will behave separately. You can use the basic Windows display settings dialog to control which monitor is on the right vs. lef, which is the primary display, etc, and you can drag/drop your task bar and icons to whichever monitor you prefer.

I usually have my left monitor as my primary display, with all fo my icons and my task bar dragged over to the right monitor so that I can see them while I play full-screen games and such.