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I have a Wndows XP machine with an Intel Core i5-2400 processor with integrated graphics (Intel HD Graphics 2000) and two monitors hooked up to it.
I would like to have the Windows desktop span these two monitors like they were one giant monitor, meaning the task bar would go along the full bottom of both screens instead of just the primary monitor's.
Furthermore, it bothers me that whenever I lock Windows and then unlock it, windows that were going across both screens (like Visual Studio) have been resized to fit on the first screen.
My old Matrox graphics card had otions for both of these things (essentially lying to the OS that there was OS there was one giant instead of two monitors). However, I haven't been able to find any corresponding settings in Intel's graphics otions. Does Intel support them too? Maybe via some non-obvious registry setting?
Or maybe there is a third-party tool to enable this functionality? I have seen some that look like they could solve the taskbar issue, but nothing I have seen so far seems to be able to make the force-windows-on-one-screen stop.
There are plenty of applications (DisplayFusion being the best that comes to mind) that will give you duplicate taskbars, which is way better than doing this old-fashioned spanning because windows behave properly - you can still maximize to just one monitor, etc. There are better ways to accomplish multi-monitor workflow than spanning these days, thank goodness! – Shinrai – 2012-02-07T16:23:42.413
@Shinrai Thanks for suggesting DisplayFusion, that seems to solve my task bar problem nicely. Even though it doesn't make the force-windows-on-one-screen stop. Why don't you post your comment as an answer so I can accept it? – PersonalNexus – 2012-02-08T17:51:46.390
Yeah, that second behavior is not something I've seen - I'm guessing it's a consequence of that particular graphics driver and/or chipset disabling the secondary output while the machine is locked (at which point Windows will shuffle everything back onto the primary). Most systems don't do this, but I've not tried these exact graphics, so I'm just conjecturing. If that's the case there's probably no good workaround. – Shinrai – 2012-02-08T17:54:33.850