Better

[susandennis]

I moved the crappy keyboard to the front of the desk (instead of the side) and that helps a little.  I tried a piece of software called synergy that is supposed to enable you to flip between monitors like a kvm but it's not my day for stupid monitor tricks. 

Meanwhile work kind of hit an ugly patch this afternoon but I just talked to my boss and he fixed it all.  Whew.

Now I plan to get some dinner and move over to the chaise for a while. 

Vista really is so pretty.

Comments

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

If both monitors are connected to the same computer, you do not need Synergy or a KVM...the mouse just rolls over there.

Find a empty spot on your desktop. Right click, and select "properties". Then click on the tab that says "settings". In the diagram that comes up, there should be two monitors showing. One may be grayed out, but that's okay. But if there is only one showing, then for some reason the machine is not aware you even have a second monitor, and that's your problem. This then gets in to nvidia issues, and I don't have an nvidia card to tell you what to do...nvidia sometimes has issues playing nicely with Linux, so I always use ATI products.

If the second monitor does appear but its grayed out, click on it, and then make sure the box that says "extend my desktop on to this monitor" is selected, but the one that says "use this device as the primary monitor" is *NOT* selected.

And finally, you may need to drag the second monitor to its proper location on that diagram. Where the second monitor appears in that diagram in relation to the first monitor is where Windows thinks it is in the meatspace world...if the second monitor is above the first one, you move from the top edge of monitor 1 to the bottom edge of monitor two, and so on.

[susandennis]

You are so kind to answer!! And in such detail. But, sadly, it's a different deal. 2 different ones, actually.

On this machine, my 'settings' go right to an Nvidia Control Panel. Where I can easily set up 1 monitor only (and pick which one I want), or 2 monitors as clones or 2 monitors to work independantly. I can also pick which one is primary and which one is secondary.

The problem is that independantly does not respond to the mouse. When I move the mouse to the left hand side of the screen, it does not go to the other monitor. It stops. When I try to move a window off to the other monitor, it just falls off the 1st one and not onto the second one.

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The KVM/synergy situation is for a different problem. Monitor 1 is hooked (via KVM) to the old XP desktop and to the new Vista machine. So when I hit the KVM button, I can operate the XP machine. Hit it again and I can see that the Vista machine still won't play nicely with the 2nd monitor.

I'd like to be able to use the same keyboard/mouse for both computers but I can't get synergy to connect the two. So now I am having to use two different keyboards and two different mice. It's not good.

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain on the KVM. For various reasons I have never found a hardware or software KVM that works correctly for me (mainly because of Windows, Mac, and Linux not wanting to play together). So depending on what I'm doing, I may have as many as 5 or 6 keyboards, mice, and monitors set up laying around my desk and floor.

[susandennis]

Turns out you weren't very wrong after all!! The right mouse click on the desktop does give me Nvidia. But tonight I noticed it also has something called "Personalize" and that leads to "display settings" and that leads to the old, friendly 2 squares... futzed those around and all of a sudden Vista did a 'doh! that's what you want???? well, ok' AND bang!! My mouse flies across the screens and I can jump windows from one screen to the other!!

hallafuckinlooyah!!!!

Now it's just a matter of making sure Vista has all the stuff I need from the old computer and shutting that sucker down and that will solve my keyboard mouse problem!

Whew!!

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

Just be aware of one hidden danger. Multi-head displays are every bit as addictive as crack, meth, sex or chocolate. Once you use two or more monitors, you will *never* be happy with just one again. You are tainted for life :-)