Using a subset of monitors for remote desktop

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I tried to find an answer to this a few years ago, but it seemed it wasn't possible then (I suspect it isn't now either! - but what the hell!)

I have a three monitor system, that I mostly use for remote desktop. However occasionally it would be useful to have remote desktop on two monitors and use the other monitor for the local machine.

I know it is possible to have a single monitor full screen, or to stretch an RDP session across monitors, but this loses things like snapping etc.

P.S. this is a duplicate of this thread, but that was a couple of years ago, I'm hoping things have changed.

Michael B

Posted 2015-09-08T01:33:09.293

Reputation: 714

Answers

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The situation hasn't changed. Your only two choices when using multiple monitors through an RDP session are the /span and /multimon options.

/multimon will treat each screen as a separate display just like you would have on the host. You get snapping/clipping capabilities, but the downside is you can only use ALL of the screens for this.

/span allows you to use only two of your three screens, but the downside is that it's one big rectangle that spans across more than 1 screen. You lose each screen's identity as a separate, distinct display.

You can modify the local group policy on the target computer to specify a maximum of 2 displays for use with the /multimon switch. I don't know what that would look like on a 3-screen display however. I suspect the 3rd screen would just go black. You'd have to play with this yourself.

You can get to the local group policy by hitting Start -> Run and typing gpedit.msc. The setting you're looking for is Computer Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Remote Session Environment. Set Limit Maximum Number of Monitors to enabled and specify 2.

NOTE You do this on the host computer (the one you're connecting to), not the client.

Wes Sayeed

Posted 2015-09-08T01:33:09.293

Reputation: 12 024

2I had a little moment of excitement as I wondered if they'd fixed the Maximum limit policy on Windows 10 (I'm connecting to a WIn10 desktop), but alas if you set that to anything it still limits it to a single screen – Michael B – 2015-09-08T02:11:02.263

1I'm sure it's probably very low on Microsoft's priorities list. The reason /multimon requires all your screens is because your local computer's window manager is in charge of rendering GUI elements on the remote host. It lowers overhead because the host does not have to send pixels over the wire for drawing things like title bars and buttons. It just sends the raw GDI info and your computer renders it. That probably makes what you want harder for Microsoft to implement. – Wes Sayeed – 2015-09-08T02:18:06.557

Its clearly very low on their priority list ;) I was thinking it might have been something somebody had tweaked for Win10 (I live in hope!) – Michael B – 2015-09-08T02:25:52.580

@WesSayeed How does one go about using /span mode? When I try it, I'm restricted to a single monitor, even if my width is correct for 2 (I just get a scrollbar at the bottom, the window refuses to cross monitor boundaries during resize). – Brian Knoblauch – 2018-05-04T17:03:15.513

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As stated in the linked question, I have been using Vmware workstation to full screen on a subset of my monitors, running a stripped down version of Windows 7, it seems to be working well so far and I'll likely retain this as a solution (at least as something to use when I need to have that separation.)

It does get a little sluggish at times, but for the most part there is no difference in performance (I am primarily using office apps etc)

Michael B

Posted 2015-09-08T01:33:09.293

Reputation: 714

Asked: 2015-09-08T01:33:09.293

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Active: 2015-09-09T19:03:40.073