Just started using dual monitors, have a few questions. - Hardware & Software

I tried googling all this stuff for a bit but I guess I worded it incorrectly because I can't find much for some of this, SO I figured I'd ask you all. First off, both my monitors aren't the same resolution. The primary monitor is 1920x1080 and the secondary is 1280x1024. I'm also using windows 7 and my graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760, if that helps. So firstly, I really want to run Speccy on my secondary screen while playing games and shit because my computer has been acting funny and I want to see if it's heat related. My issue though, is that the secondary monitor will turn black when I launch the game, preventing me from seeing the window. I have managed to fix this by either running whatever game in a borderless window or alt-tabbing and re-tabbing. This isn't the best solution as not all games have borderless window easily available if available at all and not every game is alt-tab friendly. Second issue is that I got a 4:3 monitor mainly to play DOS games on so I don't run the game in stretch-o-vision. Is there anyway to make the game run on the secondary monitor instead of the primary without making the secondary monitor into the primary one? Oh and I'm using DOSbox to run the vast majority of the games I play. Also, this isn't an issue, but is it at all possible to make the start bar stretch into the secondary monitor?

I don't know enough to say for your first 2, but Display fusion is a MUST for dual monitors. to stretch your taskbar

[QUOTE=ClaBrendon;43941942]I don't know enough to say for your first 2, but Display fusion is a MUST for dual monitors. to stretch your taskbar[/QUOTE] Yeah, someone also mentioned "Ultramon" to me as well. What's the general consensus on Ultramon vs Display Fusion?

display fusion is far superior in terms of features and use. i tried the 2, and couldn't even think about ditching display fusion.

Quick update, not EVERY game makes the secondary screen black.

Some games black it out when you're playing fullscreen on the other monitor, not sure why, I think it's a DirectX thing. Run the game in borderless windowed mode.

[QUOTE=nikomo;43942083]Some games black it out when you're playing fullscreen on the other monitor, not sure why, I think it's a DirectX thing. Run the game in borderless windowed mode.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Katatonic717;43941900]This isn't the best solution as not all games have borderless window easily available if available at all and not every game is alt-tab friendly. [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Katatonic717;43942019]Quick update, not EVERY game makes the secondary screen black.[/QUOTE] This has to do with DirectX 11 from my understanding. If you don't want to run things in windowed modes the only suggestion I can give you is to alt+tab repeatedly until the second monitor finally doesn't go black but doing that is very sporadic and fairly often doesn't even work.

[QUOTE=Alice3173;43942504]This has to do with DirectX 11 from my understanding. If you don't want to run things in windowed modes the only suggestion I can give you is to alt+tab repeatedly until the second monitor finally doesn't go black but doing that is very sporadic and fairly often doesn't even work.[/QUOTE] Is it? I upgraded my dual-monitor win7 setup to a triplemonitor win8 setup a while back and I really haven't seen the two other screens go black in a long time. There's still the fuss of alt-tabbing taking a few moments, but the other monitors seem to work fine in win8 even with a fullscreened game.

[QUOTE=fishyfish777;43944769]Is it? I upgraded my dual-monitor win7 setup to a triplemonitor win8 setup a while back and I really haven't seen the two other screens go black in a long time. There's still the fuss of alt-tabbing taking a few moments, but the other monitors seem to work fine in win8 even with a fullscreened game.[/QUOTE] It does have to do with DirectX 11 but it seems to be sporadic. I've even had it work fine one time then make my secondary monitor black the next time without me even changing anything. It depends on the game though and while I was looking for some info to link you on it I found a potential solution actually. Under the compatibility tab in the game .exe's properties tick "disable desktop composition" and it apparently should fix the problem.

[QUOTE=ClaBrendon;43941942]I don't know enough to say for your first 2, but Display fusion is a MUST for dual monitors. to stretch your taskbar[/QUOTE] I don't like having multiple taskbars / stretched, but it is included in Win8 Though