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I am trying to RDP from a Windows 7 Professional dual monitor physical machine to a Windows 7 Professional VM hosted on esxi 4.0.

I can get the spanning option to work to both monitors, but I have tried 3 different methods of connecting but have not been able to use true multiple monitors.

At different times, I tried checking the "use all monitors" option, command line mstsc /multimon and added the line use multimon:i:1 to the .rdp file. None of these worked. Any ideas? The physical machine can connect to other Windows 7 physical machines with true multi monitor access.

I also have the same issue when going from a 32bit RC1 machine to a Windows 7 Professional x64, but not when going in the reverse direction. Here's the .rdp:

screen mode id:i:2
use multimon:i:1
desktopwidth:i:1440
desktopheight:i:900
session bpp:i:16
winposstr:s:0,1,341,118,1139,568
compression:i:1
keyboardhook:i:2
audiocapturemode:i:0
videoplaybackmode:i:1
connection type:i:1
displayconnectionbar:i:1
disable wallpaper:i:1
allow font smoothing:i:0
allow desktop composition:i:0
disable full window drag:i:1
disable menu anims:i:1
disable themes:i:1
disable cursor setting:i:0
bitmapcachepersistenable:i:1
full address:s:192.168.1.5
audiomode:i:0
redirectprinters:i:1
redirectcomports:i:0
redirectsmartcards:i:1
redirectclipboard:i:1
redirectposdevices:i:0
redirectdirectx:i:1
autoreconnection enabled:i:1
authentication level:i:2
prompt for credentials:i:0
negotiate security layer:i:1
remoteapplicationmode:i:0
alternate shell:s:
shell working directory:s:
gatewayhostname:s:
gatewayusagemethod:i:4
gatewaycredentialssource:i:4
gatewayprofileusagemethod:i:0
promptcredentialonce:i:1
use redirection server name:i:0
drivestoredirect:s:

I believe Oscar Duveborn answered this question in a posting on another question: You need Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise at the end-point to support multiple terminal services displays (or any edition of Windows Server 2008 R2). Can anyone confirm there is no way to install/upgrade rdp7.0 on professional to get true dual screen rather than spanning?

user32222
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    I thought the correct flag was `mstsc /span`? Anyway you might have better luck with this over at http://www.superuser.com/ – Mark Henderson Jan 25 '10 at 02:04
  • I suspect the problem may be more with the ESX virtual machine's fairly limited virtual video adapter - I believe true multi-monitor support is available with VMware View managed VM's when using PCOIP rather than RDP. Have you tried this with Workstation 7 or the new version of Player? – Helvick Jan 25 '10 at 02:19
  • Hmm. We run our Terminal Servers on ESXi, and the console settings are always just set to 640x480 with the VMWare tools installed. When you run an `mstsc` session the local video driver is bypassed with the Terminal Server renderer. In fact I've had a TS that doesn't even have the local video card driver installed and it's fine with multi-desktop... – Mark Henderson Jan 25 '10 at 05:55
  • in 15 days, your RC1 won't work anymore – Mathieu Chateau Feb 02 '10 at 10:59
  • What do you mean by "True" multimonitor? Do you get "fake" multimonitor the rest of the time? – Chris S Mar 19 '10 at 18:45

3 Answers3

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Multi monitor support with RDP is only supported on Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate. That is for the server side of the RDP connection.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Remote-Desktop-Connection-frequently-asked-questions

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Is multiple physical monitors supported by RDP? I thought this was why http://www.splitview.com/ existed?

ta.speot.is
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  • Since TS 6.0 client, yes – Mark Henderson Jan 25 '10 at 02:03
  • Yes, Win7 / server 2008 R2 introduced it finally ;) – TomTom Mar 20 '10 at 09:08
  • I stand corrected, as per my own post at http://serverfault.com/questions/124675/windows-7-multi-monitor-rdc/124683#124683 there is a group policy setting that *should* enable it for the Windows 7 machine. – ta.speot.is Mar 21 '10 at 08:55
  • multimonitors will work with a WindowsXP client connecting to windows server 2008 machines. it may also work with server 2003 but i havent tried it yet. – djangofan Jun 15 '10 at 15:50
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Isn't it:

mstsc /span /v:SERVER
Grizly
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