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7 FREE dual monitor programs and resources that you should know about

May 23, 2012 By 18 Comments

We recently got access to a new extra screen at the office, so we did the natural thing, and started testing all sorts of free multiple monitor software that we’ve always wanted to try.

If you use more than one monitor then this post is for you; it lists 7 programs and resources that add some excellent functionality to your multi-monitor setup, such as extending the taskbar into multiple screens, controlling windows via hotkeys, spanning wallpaper images across different screens, etc.

The programs are: MultiWall, Dual Monitor Taskbar, Swap Screen, SoftTH, Dual Display Mouse Manager, GridMove, as well as some good multiple monitor wallpaper sources.

dual screen illustration

Here’s the list.

  1. MultiWall: powerful tool for downloading and displaying multi-monitor wallpaper
  2. Dual Monitor Taskbar: extend the taskbar to additional monitors
  3. Swap Screen: send the active window to various locations on different screens, via hotkey
  4. SoftTH: span DirectX games across multiple monitors
  5. Dual Display Mouse Manager: prevent the mouse from accidentally moving across screens (or ‘teleport’ it to other screens on demand)
  6. GridMove: snap your windows to pre-defined regions on any screen
  7. Multiple Monitor Wallpaper sources

1. MultiWall: powerful tool for downloading and displaying multi-monitor wallpaper

MultiWall Screenshot
This program will automatically span wallpaper images onto multiple screens, but what makes it special is that it provides a large range of images that you can download and use with a single click (you can upload your own images too, if so inclined). Simply fantastic.

There are many, many wallpaper managers for multiple monitors, but I opted to exclude all of them from this post in favor of this one.

2. Dual Monitor Taskbar: extend the taskbar to additional monitors

Dual Monitor Taskbar Screenshot

Every wished that your additional monitors would show a taskbar and taskbar buttons just like your main screen? Dual Monitor Taskbar does exactly that. (Note: I like this one better than Zbar and the free version of MultiMon, because it is simple to use and maintains Windows 7 Aero look and feel, which the latter does not).

3. Swap Screen: send the active window to various locations on different screens, via hotkey

Swap screen

The hotkeys are customizable, as shown above. Swap Screen also allows maximize a single window across multiple screen (so-called ‘supersize’ it).

Note on downloading: this program is a part of ‘Dual Monitor Tools’,  a collection of portable multi-monitor apps that come in a single zipped archive. Other tools I likes in the same pack: Dual Wallpaper and DisMon.

Note that DisplayFusion free includes the same functionality as this one.

4. SoftTH: span DirectX games across multiple monitors

SoftTH Screenshot

This one for gamers who would like a more powerful gaming experience. SoftTH will span your game display across your multiple monitors, creating an immersive visual environment.

This program is one of those rare occasions where we haven’t tested this ourselves (we did not have access to any of the games on the ‘working correctly’ list), but I just couldn’t resist including it here.

5. Dual Display Mouse Manager: prevent the mouse from accidentally moving across screens (or ‘teleport’ it to other screens on demand)

Dual dispaly Mouse manager

For those who do not want the mouse to accidentally move across screens, this one will lock it into the current screen unless ‘ctrl’ is pushed or unless the mouse is pressed onto the edge of the screen for a certain amount of time (in milliseconds). It also has a ‘region jump’ option via hotkey, whereby the mouse is teleported into the exact same relative location across different screens.

Also check out Multi Monitor Mouse, which does something very similar.

6 .GridMove: snap your windows to pre-defined regions on any screen

gridmovegridmove2

This program lets you slice your screen into pre-set or user-defined grids, and to send windows to these on-demand, via hotkey. It is absolutely a great program and it also supports multiple screens.

7 . Multiple Monitor Wallpaper sources

We’re a little obsessed with these images. Sorry ;)

Credits: thanks go to Alaa K for doing most of the testing and screenshots for this article. Illustration credit: we used this wallpaper image to do the illustration on top of this article.

Did we miss anything? Please write your thoughts, ideas, questions, etc. in the comments section below.


 
 
 
Samer Kurdi

Samer Kurdi

Has been reviewing software since 2006 when he started Freewaregenius.com
Samer Kurdi

@freewaregenius

May 23, 2012
Samer Kurdi
18
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  • Tuck

    Have you used MultiMonitor TaskBar?
    Allows both Taskbar extension and flipping windows between monitors by hotkey.

  • idawari williams

    How about Winsplit Revolution (http://winsplit-revolution.com/) for window snap management with great hotkey support and John’s Background Switcher (http://johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/) for multi monitor wall paper management?

  • Wim de Lange

    Wallpaper Slideshow LT is a very nice free program that is able to use the dual monitor for showing different pictures on each screen, which is nice if you have a laptop and a 20″ screen together. That looks better then MultiWall where only pieces of your wallpaper are shown.

  • David

    http://interfacelift.com/ is my favorite site for multi-monitor wallpaper

  • Bigtroutz

    Multimonitor is a baffling choice.. You can not specify so many defaults and basic setup values that it is close to useless despite some nice advanced capabilities. You can not even remove the included default (crap) images. Thanks but no thanks.

    John’s Background Switcher is MUCH better despite all it’s warts.

  • http://nineportals.com Simon

    There is the free version of Actual Multiple Monitors. It is the best software for improving of multi-monitor environment.

    http://actualtools.com/multiplemonitors/

  • Samer

    @ Tuck: I opted for Dual Monitor Taskbar instead of MultiMonitor taskbar, because the latter didn’t seem to play well with the Windows 7 aero style and it just didn’t look so good.

    @ idawari: thanks for the great suggestions (Winsplit Revolution and John’s background switcher are terrific apps, dual monitors or no dual monitors)

    @ Wim de Lange: thanks for the tip re: Wallpaper Slideshow LT (http://bit.ly/LuFnkM) I haven’t tried, but am sure it has stiff competition in the form of John’s Background Switcher.

    @ David: thanks for sharing. Always like to browse wallpaper sites!

    @ Bigtroutz: we quite liked the default images, but regardless you could search for and download more.

    @ Simon: Actual Multiple Monitor was on the list, as was Display fusion. We opted not to list them in the end because they are very well known and also because of the way all the paid-only features are kept visible and greyed out at all times, which was annoying. Anyway aside from the buttons on the window taskbar, all the functionality these two provide in the free version, I think, is provided in the tools above.

  • Ted Joy

    The best one I’ve come across is Display Fusion.

  • http://www.godotmedia.com/ Kevin Fernandez

    Multimonitor and splitting task bars is very nice:) it is totally different to see and I feel it suits for a multitask programmers and helps them to do their work easily.

  • Paul

    Wizmouse is also a nice little utility for dual monitors. Moves the mouse focus from screen to screen – if you have different programs running on each screen it’s very useful for auto setting the focus.

  • DEMON

    Wow ty for all the info
    every thing i need on 1 page hehe

    any1 know how i can get 3 screens working with 1 big resolution in windows 7 ?. I have seen it but don’t know how they did it
    1024×768 x 3 = 3072×2304

  • Roy Tal

    Hi,

    You should defenatly try this software at:
    http://www.monitorsanywhere.com

    for your multi monitor uses.

  • http://na dandur805

    I have a quick question. As a part time gamer, I want to split the COD3 screen into two screens, one for each of two players. Which program can accomplish this, with each person having their respective views on their respective controllers. I have looked at Playstation, but do not see this anywhere. I dunno why!

  • Chalky99
  • Moreislessiarty

    @dandur805 The game itself is what dictates what gets displayed to the screen, regardless of whether it’s split across two screens or not. The game would have to be specifically designed to display each player’s perspective on a different screen, or at least to display them side-by-side horizontally so that an app like SoftTH could span them–but even then, the two screens would have to have the same resolution for the split to be at the separation between the monitors.

  • Moreislessiarty

    …unless it displays them vertically and your screens are set up vertically in system settings… assuming SoftTH can span vertically-oriented screens.

  • Hitesh

    Hi,

    Z Bar is an amazing program and it
    solves most of the problems, however I have another requirement which i
    was wondering if this software could do.

    Right now,we
    have to drag a window and only dragged programs when minimized appears
    in the second taskbar. Is it possible to replicate the same taskbar to
    another monitor, so that whichever window I want to open on whichever
    screen, i can do so by simply clicking it in that monitor, without
    having it dragged to the current screen if that window is on the another
    screen.

    So it will be like, you can view all the running windows on
    both the screens, and window will get activated in that screen, where it
    is clicked.

    Thanks