increase my productivity!

May 28, 2008 9:15 PM

multiple monitors filter: How can I launch a program directly into second monitor without buying Ultramon? Is there a command line tag I can put into the shortcut for instance?

Situation: 2 monitors.

Problem: I want my text editor to always launch into the second monitor when I launch the program. Right now it always launches into the first (primary) monitor. (Its a weird program, other programs will launch into second monitor if I close them once they're on second monitor, but not this program).

Ultramon has a way to do this but costs 40 bucks. Is there a command line thing or some other way I can do this that you know of? Thanks!

posted by jak68 to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Not if the program doesn't remember where it last was and put itself there. And even that can be bad if the second monitor gets removed in the intervening time.

Ultramon is worth it, btw.

I did in my research about a year ago once see a utility that has some of UltraMon's features, but I can't for the life of me find reference to it at the moment. It may have had that as a feature, but I'm really not sure.
posted by wierdo at 9:48 PM on May 28, 2008

@weirdo,
are you thinking of multimon? I tried the free version, it wasnt advanced enough to do this. The paid version might be (its about 10 bucks cheaper than ultramon). I suppose I could try it but I was hoping for a command line switch, I guess. ;)
posted by jak68 at 9:56 PM on May 28, 2008

2nding Ultramon being worth it. Dude's got the market locked up in multi monitor utilities - I can't for the life of me understand why there aren't more or why it isn't built into the OS.
posted by bigmusic at 9:57 PM on May 28, 2008

I also think that UltraMon is worth it, just for the second taskbar.
posted by qvtqht at 10:04 PM on May 28, 2008

You could probably do it with AutoHotKey, but you'd have to write a script for it.

Alternatively, you could use a better-behaved text editor, or ask for the author of your current one to fix this bug.
posted by kindall at 10:08 PM on May 28, 2008

But yeah, I too registered Ultramon just for the second taskbar. $40 is steep for a second taskbar, but damn, it's just so useful.
posted by kindall at 10:09 PM on May 28, 2008

Try the Multi-Monitor Taskbar - it's free, and I think it provides a second taskbar and an arrow next to the minimize/maximize buttons to allow you to direct windows/programs to the other monitor. I've packed away my second monitor for the time being, so I don't recall whether the program does precisely what you are asking for, but I have used Multi-Monitor for a while now on XP Home, and it has worked with no problems.

Looking at the website now, it seems that there is a PRO version, which I haven't tried. The free version has worked well for me.
posted by that possible maker of pork sausages at 10:24 PM on May 28, 2008

I wrote an Extended Desktop Window Manager in AutoHotKey. With some simple keystrokes you can maximize a window to the left or right window (WinKey+Shift+Left, WinKey+Shift+Right). I'll post it if there is interest, but it may require hacking to work on your system.
posted by grouse at 11:50 PM on May 28, 2008

Winsplit Revolution allows you to specify saved locations (including a particular monitor) for windows. As far as I can see it doesn't support moving the window to that position when it is opened, but pressing Ctrl-Alt-0 with the window focussed will move it to wherever you want it. On a more general note it's a pretty useful program (gives very nice keyboard shortcuts for moving and resizing windows), and is freeware.
posted by nfg at 2:11 AM on May 29, 2008

If you have an ATI card, Hydravision can do it for you.

If you have a Nvidia card, use Nview.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:07 AM on May 29, 2008

>or ask for the author of your current one to fix this bug

I wound up asking the author to fix it ;) Fat lot of good that will do, but I like the program enough that i'll suffer with it for now. Neither multimon, ultramon, nor my autohotkey script worked (ie, it will switch windows but the text area remains the same, it doesnt resize; so I think the author will have to fix it).

Its q10, in case you're curious. I love it. I know Darkroom does the same thing (I have that too) but q10 is slicker and has some neat options. Incidentally Darkroom switches monitors correctly (resizes itself correctly) with no problem.

thanks all.
posted by jak68 at 12:23 AM on May 30, 2008

Incidentally Ultramon can launch a program directly into a particular monitor when the program is invoked; as far as I know thats the only way to do that is to buy Ultramon. (I dont believe multimon even the PRO version will do that). Multimon or autohotkey though will switch a window between monitors, but thats not actually what I wanted, I wanted it to launch into the second monitor when invoked from its desktop shortcut.

But anyway my problem was that this particular editor does not size correctly (even with ultramon launching it on the "secondary" monitor), it always sizes itself to whatever is defined as the primary monitor. So its a programming issue as far as I can tell. (Since I dont want to keep switching my primary and secondary monitor definitions around).
posted by jak68 at 12:28 AM on May 30, 2008

You could always write an AutoHotKey script that first runs your application, and then moves/resizes it as you see fit.
posted by grouse at 12:56 AM on May 30, 2008

Yeah, the AutoHotKey solution I had in mind was one that waited for the problem app's window to appear, then moved it to the desired monitor. Something like...

Loop
{
WinWait ahk_class ...
WinMove ...
WinWaitClose ahk_class ..
}

Of course this assumes the app only ever has one window; it gets slightly more complicated if it can have multiple windows.
posted by kindall at 10:22 AM on May 30, 2008