How to get Vista to remember offset of 2nd monitor?

September 2, 2008 12:57 PM

I use Vista with a 2nd monitor to extend the desktop. But, every time I disconnect and reconnect the 2nd monitor (which is at least once per day) Vista forgets the relative positional offsets and I have to reset them. (The offset setting makes it so the mouse cursor and windows move smoothly between the two monitors). Is there a program or way to get Vista to remember the offsets?
posted by Sneutrino to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Hey. I suffer from the same problem.

I use UltraMon (free, I think). It doesn't solve the problem automatically, but it allows me to create shortcuts for certain "monitor setups". So my positions for work and my positions for home can be applied with a quick icon click, or shortcut. Or just a right click and 2 menu navigation to change w/o an icon shortcut.


UltraMon has 3-4 other multimonitor features that you should have it for, anyway. So download and use it.

If you can find a better way to solve the original problem, let me know (by posting here)!
posted by Ryaske at 1:16 PM on September 2, 2008

Do you have a driver installed for that specific monitor (not just the chipset)? Perhaps that might fix it, because in my case Vista always remembers the previous desktop position when reconnecting my 2nd monitor.
posted by randomstriker at 1:33 PM on September 2, 2008

I have the same issue and I've just put a shortcut to Display on the desktop so I can get to it. I use two different laptops in different positions relative to the monitor, so I want the individual computer to recognise when it's connected to the monitor and configure appropriately, but some times it doesn't happen that way. Having the icon on the desktop must be about as many clicks away from what UltraMon does.
posted by sagwalla at 2:18 PM on September 2, 2008

Response by poster: I'm not seeing an obvious way to get Vista to want to add a driver for the extra monitor, but I'll look into it.

I'm digging the UltraMon though. I set up a shortcut to load a profile with the offset.
posted by Sneutrino at 4:16 PM on September 2, 2008