Trick Windows To See Second Monitor

Question

Hi there, is there anyway to trick windows into thinking that a second monitor is connected to the computer, even if there isnt one?

Example:

Laptop also has an external screen connected into it. The external screen is the primary screen.

When the screen is disconnected the laptop becomes primary even if the external screen is reconnected. Is there a way to trick windows into thinking that the monitor is always there? and not revert to the laptop screen as primary screen?

The way I am thinking it could work is some kind of low level driver? But I wouldnt have a clue where to start

Answer 1

For work, I actually had the same situation -- on an embedded PC, we needed a second monitor to always be available.

I put a considerable amount of time into researching it, but I wasn't able to find any solution other than with hardware.

If you have a VGA port (or DVI-I), you're in luck. You can find directions on how to fake that with a couple resistors (here's one set of directions).

Ultimately, for my project, we only had a DVI-D port available. I had to come up with a microcontroller solution to send "fake" monitor signals (via I2C) to the PC. I can't go into much more specific detail than that, unfortunately.