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Vista feature: Transient MultiMon
Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft is now talking up a few new features for Vista, including Transient MultiMon which is intended to make Windows smarter about what to do when external displays are plugged in or unplugged from mobile devices. Personally, I think the time has come for features like this one. I run into this particular headache every day when plugging in my external monitor. Although I've got it down to two mouse clicks to make XP aware of the extra monitor, realistically it shouldn't even require that. Windows should know as soon as I plug the external monitor in, and should even remember based on the monitor's firmware which monitor it is, and what my preferred positioning and resolution are for it. That way, I could be portable between a number of places where extra monitors are available to me, and Windows would know what to do in every situation.Here's hoping that Vista also handles the taskbar better on secondary displays. It should work out of the box the way it does when you have UltraMon installed. I'm just sayin'.
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentstushMay 24th 2006 10:29AM
Doesn't Mac OS X do that already?
Seems like the features Microsoft is toting around for Vista is stuff I've had since the days of Panther.
I'm excited to see what Vista will do though, and Aero is pretty slick.
MichaelMay 24th 2006 10:32AM
This is nice, but keeping constant tabs on your graphics card means yet another service running on windows. For some, this is okay, they don't care. However, every little bit counts, and every little bit more sucks the life out of your computer.
josh jMay 24th 2006 2:54PM
#1 yes. Apple has been doing it since at least OS X 10.2
Tai TohMay 24th 2006 4:17PM
Ultramon is a great application. I've used it for years.
There is also a freeware application called "Multimon" (http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm). It has the basic functionality of Ultramon (e.g, smart taskbar). Window switching using the 2nd taskbar is not as slick, but the price is right.
Multimon does have one one limitation at the moment: 1) the 2nd monitor must be to the right of the primary monitor.
The site says that the resolutions are suppose to be the same, but I did not have any problems running different resolutions.