Graphics chip manufacturer addon software
The three major graphics chip manufacturers (nVidia, ATI, and Matrox) offer software to make working with multiple monitors more fun and productive. If you have any of the cards supported by this software installed, then the software should have no problems working on all the cards installed in the system (even if they are made by other manufacturers).
Matrox DualHead
Matrox has been focusing on multi-monitor setups for several years, and they generally have the best software and software support. The software can merge the displays together to span a DVD movie across all the displays. It also offers extensive keyboard shortcut options to quickly and easily move windows from display to display or to launch a program to specific displays. It can also control which display specific applications and those application’s dialog boxes and child windows are opened onto (regardless of which monitor/location it was in when it was last open), or it can open in the last locations..
nVidia nView
nView, nVidia’s dual monitor software has improved dramatically and is close to the same quality as Matrox’s. The application location rememberence features are much the same, and it also has customizable keyboard shortcuts. However, nVidia does not have the ability to set a keyboard shortcut for moving a window to the next display or previous display… only for moving a window to a specific display. So, for each display you have, you will need to configure a seperate keyboard shortcut for it. If you have several displays, this can be understandably annoying.
ATI Hydravision
ATI’s Hydravision isn’t at the same level as nVidia or Matrox software. It does have some keyboard shortcuts and application/window management, but not nearly the same degree of control. On the ATI systems I’ve used, I always end up uninstalling Hydravision after trying the latest version as the standard Windows multi-monitor control seems to work better for me.
Multi-monitor Taskbar
Oscar’s Multi-monitor taskbar allows for monitor’s 1, 2, and 3 to all have their own taskbars so that the normal taskbar only visible on the primary monitor isn’t cluttered with all the windows open on all monitors. This is a very handy utility and highly recommended.
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