Single Monitor act exactly like dual monitor?

Does anyone know if there is a way to make a single monitor act like a dual monitor with 2 totally seperated areas that are detected at the window's level.

Eg. 2560x1600 monitor to show up as 2 panels with 1280x1600 resolution each or a 1920x1200 showing up as 2 960x1200 monitors. I am usually looking at code/documents mostly so larger vertical vs horizontal resoutions are preferred.

Is there any video card drivers that support this or is there some layer to put over windows to allow for this functionality. The solution should make windows see 2 monitors when looking at the display settings. There should be no difference from a real 2 monitor solution.

Is this even possible?

Edit: Using windows Vista.

Edit 2: I am looking for something that virtualizes the multiple monitors so windows itself thinks there is 2 monitors. Not looking for something that will give me split bars etc.

Kelsey

Posted 2009-07-21T16:41:02.767

Reputation: 798

Thanks for the great question! I was just wondering if this was possible, as it would be a much nicer to use one ultra high res monitor rather than being stuck with several physical monitors... and it's borderless :) – Ivan Dossev – 2015-02-13T03:47:01.623

and btw you could be wasting money http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001198.html

– Pyrolistical – 2009-07-21T17:15:26.193

1@Pyro: That doesn't seem very relevant. He's not hiring programmers to create something, he wants some pre-built consumer software. It's a completely different scenario from what Jeff was talking about. – Dan Walker – 2009-07-21T17:25:50.817

1What are you trying to solve? It sounds like you are trying to fool Windows. There might be a better way. – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 – 2009-07-21T17:41:02.340

Answers

Try WinSplit Revolution.

Edit: Since you want Windows to think there are two physical monitors, maybe Matrox PowerDesk or Virtual Display Manager would fit your needs.

Dan Walker

Posted 2009-07-21T16:41:02.767

Reputation: 8 869

1Virtual Display Manager looks like it solves the problem. Matrox PowerDesk looks like it needs Matrox hardware, and WinSplit Revolution just does window rearranging, not actually emulating dual screens. – me_and – 2010-02-07T23:04:40.030

I am giving VDM a try. It creates "areas" on the screen. There are some annoying glitches (under Win7) that hopefully will be resolved. – Ivan Dossev – 2015-02-13T22:59:58.507

VDM creates "areas" on the screen. Don't expect to see the "Virtual Devices" in the Control Panel's Display settings. Windows does not recognize the layouts when you drag a window to the edges of the screen. – Ivan Dossev – 2015-02-13T23:11:21.057

How about we just solve your original problem?

Are you using windows 7? You can drag the window title bar to the left or right edge to use up half the screen.

For XP/Vista try this http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/188/xp_vista_tile_cascade_minimize_windows/

Pyrolistical

Posted 2009-07-21T16:41:02.767

Reputation: 1 132

With Windows 7 (maybe Vista too?) you can use [windows-key]+[left] or [windows-key]+[right] to align currently active window on the left or right half of the screen. – Kent – 2015-02-10T18:30:21.230

The built in cascading features are not what I am looking for as you need to constantly be selecting and arranging windows. With a dual monitor solution even placement is remembered and you just need to maximize to a screen. – Kelsey – 2009-07-21T16:53:25.607

1+1 for solving the real problem instead of introducing a hack. – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 – 2009-07-21T17:39:57.570