Hello,
I hate to bother you but I have been reading on the internet about the multi-screen topics you write about. If you have time to answer my question – I would greatly appreciate it.
I have been assigned what seems to be an impossible project – and given almost nothing as a budget.
My company want me to create a 3 TV set visual in our business.
I see where you write about similar set-ups – I had hoped you can give me some direction.
This is ULTIMATELY what I would like to make happen.
We have a computer that sits there and has little other purpose.
I would like to use this computer to drive 3 modern TV sets (which have perhaps VGA inputs). I see some links you provide to companies that make video splitting devices – but we would need the model that costs almost 2 thousand – which is my entire budget – so this won’t work. Anyway – I am looking for a cheap way to connect 3 TV sets to a computer AND have the computer to run 3 separate programs which will feed these 3 separate TV sets. I may be able to get this down to 2 TV’s – but 3 is the ultimate goal.
What have you seen or read about that is cheap that may be able to do what I need? I really would appreciate any advice you have on the subject.

And my answer:

Hiya, Scott.
For hardware, just get a video adapter that supports three screens. Here are several:

http://www.multi-monitors.com/SUPER_PC_Dual_Monitor_Video_Cards_Multi_Screen_Graphics_s/1914.htm

You have lots of options, but this seems to be the cheapest at $250: ATI FirePro 2450 Multi-View 512 MB PCI-Express Video Card

So, swap out your existing video card with that one (assuming you have PCI-Express), and use whatever adapter cables you might need to connect to your TVs. Then, just configure Windows for use with multiple monitors.

Are you playing independent video on all three monitors? If so, did you find software to do that, or do you need a hand?

Tony,

Do you have a keyboard shortcut for switching between monitors? I have two monitors at work where I can drag things inbetween them. Is there a shortcut key so I don’t have to use my mouse?

Thanks!

Have you tried Ultramon? It includes keyboard shortcuts for moving windows between monitors. It can even add buttons to the title bar (as shown above) to move windows between monitors. It also adds a taskbar to each monitor, which makes it easy to keep track of where every window is.

BTW, I’m not being paid to endorse Ultramon–I just like it.

It does other things that I don’t use, like manage multiple-monitor screensavers (good for photo slideshows) and stretching a wallpaper across multiple monitors.

Note that Laura responded to me, and it sounds like I misunderstood her situation:

Hi Tony,

It was so good of you to respond.  No, I guess what I meant was when I move from doing something on one screen to another, I have to use the mouse to click on the monitor I need to use.  Then when I go back to the other task, I have to click on the first monitor with the mouse.  If I could CTRL+ “something” or ALT or some shortcut that lets me pivot back and forth, that would be awesome.  I can’t really install anything to the hospital computer.

You’re so kind, thank you!

And my updated recommendation:

Hi, Laura. Maybe pressing Alt+Tab will work for you? That let’s you switch between active applications. I’m not sure about your setup, but if you have one window open on each monitor and you haven’t used any other apps, pressing Alt+Tab will switch between the windows (and thus the monitors).

Please do let me know if that helps!

Came across an article you wrote about converting old laptops to extra monitors. Interesting. My situation differs slightly however and I was wondering if you had any tips. I currently have 2 identical dell inspiron 5100 laptops with max ram and pentium 4′s. They are sweet machines, and I use a program called synergy to share one usb keyboard and mouse between both laptops, so I never have to forward on my couch (I like to keep the screens about 4-5 feet away). This way I utilize the full processing power of both machines. My question is, is there an app out there that will allow me to drag and drop files from one desktop to the other across the network? I already have the mouse/keyboard sharing, so why not drag and drop ? I know I could network share certain folders and manually transfer data, but drag and drop would be really sweet. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

-Joe

Sure: MaxiVista and KaVoom! (The exclamation mark is theirs). They both support a shared clipboard between the computers (which Synergy also does) and copying files with drag-and-drop. MaxiVista is $50 and KaVoom is $40, though. I’ve used them both and like MaxiVista better.

I haven’t used Input Director, but it claims to allow sharing files between computers, and it’s free. Give it a shot and let me know how it works, please.