So...You Want To Run Multiple Monitors??
Jun 10 '00
As a web designer, I used to find myself switching back and forth between windows in order to accomplish graphic design and web design tasks. Recently, however, I upgraded my main PC to Windows98 Second Edition due to the claims that it supported multiple monitors. Intrigued by this idea, I decided to give it a whirl and see how it actually worked (not that I am skeptical of Microsoft's claims, but...OK, it's because I'm skeptical of Microsoft's claims).
Before running out a purchasing a second monitor for my primary system, I just borrowed one and an ATI Expert@play out of one of my other systems. My main PC had an AGP ATI Rage Fury so according to MS I could just plug the new graphics card in, plug in the new monitor and away I would go. They were partly correct.
After installing the card and the monitor, I booted up my computer only to find that video display was all messed up and Windows was telling me that my adapter settings were not configured correctly. I figured that this was due to my new card, but couldn't figure out why the PCI card was booting up instead of the AGP card. After doing a little research, I found that my motherboard (an ABIT BE6A) had a setting in the BIOS that determines which card boots as the primary. I simply switched it over to AGP and again booted windows.
Having not installed the Expert@play driver yet, I still received the message that my display was incorrectly configured. So I went to ATI's website and downloaded the newest driver and installed it. Unfortunately, I continued to receive the error even after installing the driver. After looking around on Microsoft's website I found the multiple monitor compatibility list at http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q188/4/81.asp .
This list pointed me back to ATI's site where I found that my Expert@play would not function properly with the newest drivers. So I downloaded an older version and was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked. I now had a desktop that was twice as wide and my mouse could easily move from one monitor to the other. In addition, once the driver was installed, I could enter my display settings window and decide what resolution I wanted on each monitor and how I wanted to access the second monitor. The way I have it set up, my primary display is on the right, so I move my mouse off the left side of my primary monitor and it seamlessly shows up from the right side on my secondary monitor.
I can hear it now. Everyone who is running all those paybars like AllAdvantage and MValue are thinking "Cool, I can put my paybars on one monitor and surf on the other!" Well, yes and no. Most paybars do not allow you to move them from the primary monitor so if you want to run multiple paybars, make sure you set you secondary monitor as the one you are going to work on.
After getting this all set up, I went out and bought a second 17" monitor and have a HUGE desktop with both of them running at 1024x768. I would highly recommend this setup to anyone who switches back and forth between windows a lot.
Just as a note, you must have Windows98 to take advantage of this feature. Also, MS claims that you can have up to nine (yes, I said nine) monitors running at one time. Keep in mind, however, that you would need nine graphics cards and nine empty slots to accomplish this.
Hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions about multiple monitor setup.
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