One of the new features of the Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Client in Windows Vista is the support for multiple monitors. If the machine running the TS-Client has a multi-monitor configuration that creates one logical rectangle, then the TS-Client can span over all the monitors, creating one virtual desktop of the combined size.
For example, this configuration is suitable for multimon spanning:
(-1024,0) | --+--------------+------------------> x | | | | | | | | | | | | +--------------+--------------+ (1024,768) | y V
While this configuration is not suitable for multimon spanning:
| --+--------------+--------------+---> x | | | | | | | | | | | | +--------------+ (1024,768) | | | | | y +--------------+ (2304,1024) V
You can access the functionality using commandline options, in one of two ways:If you know the rectangle dimensions of your virtual desktop:
mstsc /w:2048 /h:768 /v:<servername>
or if you want mstsc.exe to figure-out the dimensions:
mstsc /span /v:<servername>
There are a few limitations of multi-monitor spanning:* The maximum dimensions of the virtual desktop in a TS-Session is hard-coded to 4096x2048, regardless of the color-depth and the available resources on the remote machine.* The remote session will see your virtual desktop as one giant display.This reduces the complexity of the multi-display implementation in the remote session, while still allowing the windowed mode of the TS-Client to be functional and viable.
The Software at www.murgee.com/MurGeeMon can be quite handy as well when having dual monitors on Vista or Windows 7 and even on Windows XP.
This is unbelievable. In over a decade Microsoft still cannot deliver on the obvious requirements. Having two monitors with precisely the same resolution and geometry defeats the purpose of having multiple monitors. I require remote desktop to utilize both monitors in dual view mode (not span mode), and I know I speak for everyone here.