| One of the most significant new
features in Microsoft Windows 98 is support for multiple monitors and video cards on a single
PC. Multiple monitors allow for a larger desktop to be displayed, which can greatly
enhance productivity in applications such as desktop publishing, spreadsheets, and
browsing the web. In order to see how well the multiple monitor feature works and
how easily it can be set up, we used three monitors and video cards: a pair of generic
14" monitors and a Panasonic S17 17" monitor, and two PCI and an AGP video
card. |
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| How We Tested |
| Test system was a Pentium II-300 with an Asus P2B
motherboard and 96 Mbytes of PC100 SDRAM, Quantum Viking 4.5 Gbyte ultra SCSI drive with a
Diamond Fireport 40, Matrox Productiva (8 Mbyte AGP), Hercules Thriller 3D (8 Mbyte PCI)
in PCI Slot 4, and a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (2 Mbyte PCI) in PCI Slot 2. Panasonic
S17 was connected to Matrox Productiva, a generic 800x600 14" monitor was connected
to the Thriller 3D, and a 640x480-only 14" monitor was paired with the Diamond
Stealth 3D 2000. Drivers used: Matrox Productiva (Version 4.11 beta, 06/30/98),
Hercules Thriller 3D (Version 0.85, 06/30/98), Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (used S3
Virge 325 drivers that came with Windows 98, dated 05/11/98) |
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| The Experience |
| As the test machine booted up with all 3 video cards installed and the
monitors connected, we noticed that only the monitor connected to the Thriller 3D (in PCI
Slot 4) showed any signs of life by displaying the memory count and BIOS information.
The other two monitors did not receive any video signal. As Windows 98
finished booting, it asked for the Thriller 3D drivers, which we supplied, and then the
computer was rebooted. This time, however, the other two monitors lit up and
displayed the BIOS message for their respective video cards. Beneath the video BIOS
the following message was displayed: If
you can read this message, Windows has successfully initialized this display adapter.
To use this adapter as part of your Windows desktop, open the display option in the
Control Panel and adjust the settings on the Settings tab.
The 14" monitor that was coupled to
the Thriller 3D showed the booting progress, but Windows did not not continue booting and
we had to do a hardware reset. To our relief, this time Windows 98 finished booting,
and asked for the Productiva drivers, which we subsequently installed and then rebooted
the machine. After Win98 finished loading, we looked at the Device Manager Tab of
System Properties and saw all three video cards successfully installed: |
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| When we clicked on the Settings tab under Display
Properties, however, the machine froze and we had to cold boot again. After Windows
loaded, we tried to access the Settings tab again but same problem. After rebooting
once more, we installed the Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 drivers instead of the generic S3
drivers, but no cigar as the same problem arose and the computer locked up. The next
step was to then remove the drivers for the Stealth altogether and see if dual monitors
would work- and it did! When we went into the Settings tab under Display Properties
this time, we saw the following screen: |
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| After clicking on the "Extend my Windows desktop onto this
monitor" option, a warning message appeared: |
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| The Experience
Continued: |
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| After we made the warning message go away by clicking OK,
we proceeded to set monitor #1 (attached to the Thriller 3D) to 800x600x16 at 75 Hertz and
monitor #2 (attached to the Productiva) to 1152x864x16 at 75 Hertz. The result was a
large, horizontally-continuous desktop. When the mouse cursor went beyond the right
side of monitor 1, it reappeared on the desktop of monitor 2. Very cool.
Applications, if not maximized, can be moved anywhere on the expanded desktop. We
then tried running Quake II to see how it would work. It loaded maximized on monitor
#1, but unfortunately the mouse cursor disappeared and basically the the second monitor
became useless. Although if you play Quake II in windowed mode, you would still have
access to the rest of your desktop. After some more toying around, we tried again to
make the third monitor and video card work. And strangely enough, they did! So
we now had a total desktop area of 800x600 + 1152x864 + 640x480. |
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Something very neat was that in the Settings tab of the Display properties, you can DRAG
the monitor icons to match the physical arrangement of the monitors. In addition, if
you click and HOLD the mouse cursor over a particular monitor icon, the corresponding
monitor will display a huge number to ensure you of its identity. E.g. if you click
and hold the house cursor over monitor icon 1, monitor #1 will have a large "1"
displayed on screen.
Overall it was not a painless experience, but it was much easier than what we had
expected. Microsoft really did a good job in the usability of the multi-monitor
implementation. This feature alone makes Windows 98 worth the upgrade from 95.
With prices of generic 17" monitors around $250 and 8 Mbyte video cards under $99
these days, it does not cost very much to increase your productivity tremendously.
Especially those of you who work with large documents and spreadsheets, multiple monitors
can really help out. |
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| Things that you may
want to keep in mind when installing multiple monitors/video cards under Windows 98: |
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- [update 07/14/98] The
feature only works for PCI and AGP video cards- ISA will not work. You can mix PCI
and AGP video cards- no problem. Sorry for not making this more clear.
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- Check to see if Windows 98 compliant drivers for your video
cards have been released
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- You might want to put in your primary video card first, then
add the other ones after that because the only the desktop of video card #1 shows the
taskbar and dialog boxes. Although improved software and drivers may allow more
flexibility in the future. [Correction!]
David Payne pointed out to me that you can indeed drag the taskbar to any one of
your monitors. In addition, software that are multiple-monitor aware will show the
dialog boxes on the monitor where the application is currently running. Thanks
David! In addition, it turns out that the #1 video card is usually the one in the
highest numbered PCI slot. So the order in which the cards are installed does not
make a difference.
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- You can mix and match any resolution, any color depth, and any
refresh rate amongst your monitors
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