Dual Monitor blacks out the second monitor in locked mode

Dan/Kunal,  If you have found a solution I'm interested in it.  I'm particularly interested in showing the current wallpaper as lock screen background.  We just moved to Windows 7 and one of the popular water cooler topics at my office is desktop wallpapers.  Now that no one can see other's wallpaper without asking to click the show desktop button, they have to find a different topic to get refreshed.  They can get over it, but I like to give them the feature if there is any possibility.  I'm trying Logon studio from stardock to meet my employees wants at half way, will let you all know how it goes.

@danm330: Lets be practical, how many times have you, me or any one locked a computer with all windows minimized, so when I push the magic sequence of "Ctrl + Alt + Del" and enter my password I see my wallpaper and not the work windows.  You are suggesting to Educate end user.  Should I educate them to take 30 extra seconds to minimize all windows on their screen before locking or after unlocking computer? or Should I educate them that its work and they can not have fun or feel relaxed even for few seconds? I don't like either of your solutions.  Taking the second monitor away definitely hinders productivity.  Moving back to XP! Even if the issue was significantly bigger than a simple wallpaper, I don't want to pay to move ~500 computers back to XP when the question of "when does xp-sp3 support end?" is at large.

Solution1:  Have your Help Desk remove end users second monitor because it's "broke".  Problem solved.

Solution2:  If it bothers you that much, go back to Windows XP.  Problem sovled.

You're right coldfire.  I missed the point.  Because the point is a waste of everyones talented time.  I only took the time to post about it because of the absurdity of the whole situation.  I'm honestly still shocked that people believe this is a "legit" issue.  I won't lose any sleep over it and neither should you. Educate your end users. Be happy they're locking their computer when they get up for their coffee or their smoke break every 10 minutes.  And rest assured, that when they press that magic little key sequence "Ctrl" + "Alt" + "Delete", their beautiful picture of the beach they vacationed on, or their pet dog, or sweet little kid, will be happily staring them in the face . . . on both screens

So aesthetics is a total waste of time for Microsoft, correct? They should simply stop development of visual elements that users desire? The OS would still work great if it had windows 95 era graphics, so they shouldn't have bothered with aero?  The desktop experience is part of what sells a modern OS and many users think that this particular part of that system is lacking. It isn't a waste of Microsoft's time if it makes the users of their OS happy. Since their main goal is to make money and its easier to keep customers than find new ones, they tend to try and include features that users want. They don't care about making a OS they can be proud of, they want to make one that sells. While this may not be a big enough issue to make someone switch to another OS, it might add to a list of other issues and complaints that might. If we can make it seem like it is worth the time for Microsoft to change this for us, then they will. It has nothing to do with functionality or creating a working OS for work environments. If you don't like people complaining about a feature of software that they paid for, then your going to be upset an awful lot.

Solution1:  Have your Help Desk remove end users second monitor because it's "broke".  Problem solved.

Solution2:  If it bothers you that much, go back to Windows XP.  Problem sovled.

You're right coldfire.  I missed the point.  Because the point is a waste of everyones talented time.  I only took the time to post about it because of the absurdity of the whole situation.  I'm honestly still shocked that people believe this is a "legit" issue.  I won't lose any sleep over it and neither should you. Educate your end users.  Be happy they're locking their computer when they get up for their coffee or their smoke break every 10 minutes.  And rest assured, that when they press that magic little key sequence "Ctrl" + "Alt" + "Delete", their beautiful picture of the beach they vacationed on, or their pet dog, or sweet little kid, will be happily staring them in the face . . . on both screens.

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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Matthew Arkin - Windows Answers Moderator - Windows Desktop Experience MVP - http://twitter.com/Microsoft\_Cares

This forum post is my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or view of Microsoft, its employees, or other MVPs.

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So that is it? The best the answers community can come up with is that it is the way it is and any solution isn't supported and should be stifled. This fits oh so well with the name of the twitter account you have linked in your sig.

I agree with Coldfire.  This is annoying and it is a legitimate issue.  My organization is 100% dual monitors on about 4000 PCs.  In XP the background shows on BOTH monitors at the logon screen and locked screen.  However, in Windows 7 (which we are currently migrating to) the background is BLACK on the second monitor.  Another annoyance is that at the logon screen you can only see your mouse cursor on the second black monitor, and can't see it on the first monitor with background.

This is a legit issue, because our helpdesk is actually getting calls from end users that were just upgraded from XP to Win7 saying that their second monitor isn't working, when in fact it is working, MS just decided that in Windows 7, that latest and greatest and more "mac-like" operating system that you no longer should have a background on the second monitor when your computer is at logon screen or locked.