Dual Monitor blacks out the second monitor in locked mode

Anonymous
2010-06-25T15:36:04+00:00

Hi There,

We work in support environment and use dual monitors setup. WIN7 heard to have very good support for such setup and easy to use functionalities. However at some point something which was great has gone troubled.

We can use both the monitors while working on it however just the time its locked it blacks out the second monitor background and screensavers set if any. I tried looking for any config changes but in vain. Looking out for answer to this here.

Thanking you in advance.

Kunal Pathak

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-10-02T20:28:13+00:00

There is no built in way to change this functionality. **When locked, one screen will be black.**There may be some 3rd party software that may do this however it would not be supported by  Microsoft.


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  1. Anonymous
    2012-05-12T20:04:18+00:00

    Yep ... still a problem. In case anyone at Microsoft was dumb enough to think ignoring it would fix it...

    Someone had to actively decide how this was going to work, and intentionally code it so that the additional monitors would blank out. A simple user survey would have shown that tons of users with multiple monitors were customizing in XP (including myself). As a software person myself, that would have been enough for me to decide to keep the functionality.

    But it seems that Microsoft is all around fail at multiple monitors. You can't have the taskbar without a 3rd party app. It's really hard to make backgrounds and screen savers work in a 'nice' way without 3rd party apps. I have to pay money for Actual Multiple Monitors (which is surprisingly good, but doesn't fix the lock issue). These taskbar issues actually affect productivity and usability. But mostly, I'm seriously annoyed that I have to pay additional money just to get to a state that I would have expected out of the box. I have my reasons for using Windows over Apple and Linux, but not everyone has the same reasons. If Microsoft could put the effort into the stuff they put out, it might win some people back.

    My last company had an office full of dual monitor setups. Our clients walk through that office. Everything is nice and shiny. I have experience in social engineering and usability/user experience, and I can say that subtle things really do leave impressions. Not just on the clients, but also on the users.

    This might be extremely hard to implement .... if XP didn't already do so. But with an example to follow, it should be a piece of cake.

    All we need are a few options.

    1: Blank additional monitors?

    2: Display 1 stretched image or one image per monitor?

    3: If 1 image per monitor, duplicate or unique?

    And of course, the ability to control what images get used, which should be fine if it follows the existing lock screen example, as that is already configurable.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-21T14:43:23+00:00

    <removed>

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-10T23:20:33+00:00

    I too would really like this feature re-enabled.

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-01-27T15:57:17+00:00

    I have read this post 3 or 4 times and each time I come up with a different meaning. So I will try to address several different meanings and hope one of them fits. Im going assume you mean windows 7 when you say "windows new". It mostly seems like you are trying to say that its somehow my fault that you can't have a different resolution per monitor in windows 7? Try a different driver. I know that some monitor modes are not available in windows 7 anymore, like span mode (at least with nvidia cards anyway), so you may be out of luck. You may also be complaining about the same issue that this thread is about. In which case, welcome to the club. Most of the people in this thread want it fixed and venting your rage at me isn't going get it fixed. Also, the post that you referenced has a quote from someone else in it, so if you are mad at them, please reply to their post, not mine.

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