Dual Monitor Window Management for MS Windows

Question

I am sure I could get some great suggestions here since I am sure a large percentage of the StackOverflow user base could help me out here.

Like most dev's I have dual monitor setup at work, and a gazillion windows open at the time, and often need to ping them back and forward between the two.

Reaching for the mouse all the time, quite frankly, pisses me off! :@ :D

Can you guys recommend any good window managers for dual screen rigs?

I have seen many that are pretty poor at what they do.. It doesnt need to be anything fancy, pref just a shortcut to "send to other monitor" or something.

Answer 1

This should do the trick: http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

Answer 2

MultiMonitor TaskBar

Answer 3

In this post, Jeff Atwood recommends RealTimeSoft's Ultramon Utility.

Looks nifty, although I don't have any personal experience with it.

Answer 4

Lots of people like Ultramon. I actually use an AutoHotKey script to do simple monitor to monitor movement. Here's the script I use:

 !^+up::
 WinGet, active_id, ID, A
 WinMaximize, ahk_id %active_id%
 return

 !^+down::
 WinGet, active_id, ID, A
 WinMinimize, ahk_id %active_id%
 return

 !^+right::
 WinGet, mm, MinMax, A
 WinRestore, A
 WinGetPos, X, Y,,,A
 WinMove, A,, X+1680, Y
 if(mm = 1){
 WinMaximize, A
 }
 return

 !^+left::
 WinGet, mm, MinMax, A
 WinRestore, A
 WinGetPos, X, Y,,,A
 WinMove, A,, X-1680, Y
 if(mm = 1){
 WinMaximize, A
 }
 return

 !^+end::
 WinGet, mm, MinMax, A
 WinRestore, A
 return

This allows me to move windows between monitors, minimize, maximize, and restore windows with keystrokes, which was all I needed. You can replace the "1680" with your primary monitor's horizontal resolution. Hope that helps!

Answer 5

I use UltraMon from Realtime Soft (http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon) and I'll never go back. It's a reasonable price of about $40 I believe. It allows you to add buttons to the title bar to move the application to the other monitor, as well as a button to span that appliation across both screens.

Version 2 has been out for awhile now, and is quite stable. Version 3 is moving through beta right now, with Vista compatibility.

Answer 6

Folks have already mentioned Ultramon, and I second that. While it's useful on it's own, I think it really shines when you combine it with WinSplit Revolution. WinSplit makes it ridiculously easy to move stuff from monitor to monitor and to arrange windows within a monitor. I wouldn't want to use a dual-monitor box without both of them installed.

Answer 7

GridMove does just perfect for me, a very simple and lightweight Autohotkey-based program.

http://jgpaiva.donationcoders.com/gridmove.html

You can specify a grid and then have the windows "pop" into the grid as you wish. You can also customize the grids.

Comes with nice hotkeys, and the best part is it's Autohotkey so you can play around with the script and edit it to your heart's content.

Answer 8

I find WndHop irreplacable. Just press Windows-Enter and active window jumps to the other monitor, preserving window size. No bells and whistles, no configuration, just hopping, which is exactly what I need.

WndHop home page seems to be down, but Google is your friend.

Oh, and it works with three (and more) monitors, too.

Answer 9

I would just have to agree with Ultramon. I'm using it at home, and it has become so valuable! The ability to drag maximized windows to the other monitors is one of my favorite features.

Answer 10

Are you running on windows Vista? If so then check out Switcher. It's like expose on OSX and probably the best use of Aero that I've seen.

Answer 11

ReSizer does the job for me:

"...a system utility that enables keyboard shortcuts to focus, move, resize and change other window properties in a fast and intuitive way without even touching the mouse."

Features:

• Keyboard shortcuts for moving and resizing active windows.
• Change the opacity and always-on-top properties.
• Instant window placement to fit specific areas on the screen.
• Faster-switching between visible applications only.
• User-definable application shortcut mappings.
• Multimonitor support.

Answer 12

If you have an Nvidia graphics card you can use their nView tools (nvidia.com). I believe it comes bundled with most of their drivers. It can add a couple more buttons up near the minimize and close buttons to easily move and manipulate windows. It also supports keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures, multiple desktops (like KDE on Linux), and a few useful additional taskbar options. It's all I use to manage multiple monitors.

Answer 13

Two monitors aren't enough for me - I also need virtual desktops to keep it all organized. On Windows, that means AltDesk to keep it all organized, including dual monitors. I set hotkeys for the virtual desktops, like alt-f1, and between that and alt-tab I can switch very quickly.

Answer 14

Gotta mention any Linux Window Manager has virtual desktops which make arranging multi-monitor setups a breeze. I couldn't live without them.

Answer 15

I second reSizer as a free option, just tried it and it worked like a charm.

Answer 16

I've tried two:

• WinSplit Revolution (free),
• SplitView ($39, 1 month free trial).

Both have similar features, but different hotkeys.

Try both of them and decide which one it's better for you.

Answer 17

I using Actual Window Manager (http://www.actualtools.com/windowmanager/). It's best. If you have any questions what this do read here

Answer 18

Have to recommend something I wrote myself. Unlike WinSplit Revolution (if I've understood their website correctly), MaxTo allows you to split your monitors into regions you define yourself. You can then move windows quickly using Win+Ctrl+Arrows.

See maxto.net for an overview.

Answer 19

DisplayFusion FTW, although I'm probably a bit biased.

http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

Answer 20

People need to remember alt+spacebar.

A Windows default for maX, mIn, Restore, Move, Size, and Close.

All from quick keystrokes.

Answer 21

Windows 7 has a brand new set of keyboard shortcuts, related to productivity and dual monitors. One of the shortcuts is "Jump to left/right monitor": Win + Shift + Left/Right.

The new shortcuts are listed here.

Answer 22

MultiMon is a free UltraMon equivilent. Though personally I use UltraMon because I found it first. I absolutely can't live without it though

Answer 23

New version 2.0 of Actual Multiple Monitors beats everything available at the moment.

In short, it's a unique combination of UltraMon and GridMove, but with some exclusive features. It can display the Start menu, system tray, clock and primary Taskbar toolbars (Quick Launch, Desktop, Windows Media Player, etc.) on secondary monitors.

Also, it offers such usability features as snapping windows to desktop boundaries and to each other, dragging/sizing a window by its arbitrary point, dragging taskbar buttons and system tray icons with the mouse, semi-transparent taskbars, ability to open new windows by default on the monitor where the mouse pointer is on at the moment, and many others.