Question

using remote desktop with a dual screen setup

Asked by: jshussain

Hey guys,

I got a real issue here that is driving me nuts, hope you can help me out...

I have a office computer and a house computer. Both running windows XP. I just recently setup windows remote desktop service so that I can login from the house computer to the office computer. Here is my issue...

on my office computer, i have a dual screen setup. I have a ati RX300 se -pcie video card, with two 19 inch dells, max resolution that i use is 1280x1024. I have tons of desktop icons on the top of both my monitors. When I remote desktop into my office computer, I notice on my home computer that I can only see one screen. Then I come into the office the next day and all my icons are messed up from their original positions and are all on one side of the dual monitor setup.

Seems like windows remote desktop software can handle th dual screen setup. This is really annoying and its come to a point where I rather not even use it if I have to fix all my icons accordingly.

Please help me out. Is there a setting I should know about that can change this or a software that can get around this?

Please let me know.
Thanks in advance.

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Asked On
2007-10-10 at 19:17:46ID22885991
Tags

remote

,

desktop

,

dual

,

screen

Topics

Remote Access Software

,

Remote Desktop/Terminal Services

,

LCD & Plasma

Participating Experts
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2007-10-10 at 19:41:23ID: 20053826

Use console mode using the mstsc

mstsc /v:192.168.0.105 /con /w:1024  /h:768

IP followed by max screen size

see

mstsc /?

for more info

I hope this helps !



 

by: cottsakPosted on 2007-10-10 at 20:07:16ID: 20053907

the problem occurs like this:

on your office PC, Windows understands your 2 screens as a single desktop of size 2560x1042, rendered onto 2 display adapters. when you connect to any desktop with RDC (Remote Desktop Connection) at a resolution less than the resolution of the previous session, Windows will move your desktop icons back into the remote session desktop size. this means that if you connect via RDC at 1280x1024, it will move icons from your second screen (those outside the 1280x1024 boundary) back to your 1st. i guess the basis for this decision is so that you have access to them instead of them being "out of reach" so to speak.

a work-around i have found is a utility i use for multi-monitor environments - UltraMon (http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/). one of it's many useful features is it's ability to preserve icon locations separate from how windows would natively preserve them. Ive found this seems to put the icons back to where i left them when i get back to the machine and log on locally.

 

by: jshussainPosted on 2007-10-12 at 12:55:42ID: 20068619

SysExpert, I'm not sure at all what your suggestions means. Can you explain them in another way. how do I use console mode using mstsc?

Hey cottsak, I understand what you mean. What do you think about programs like this?

http://www.splitview.com/

http://www.dameware.com/

Let me know what you think.

 

by: cottsakPosted on 2007-10-14 at 18:19:57ID: 20075410

jshussain,

i have not used either of those products before but i had a quick look at both and the dameware site tells me very little. the splitview software seems to be very similar to ultramon, from the features list it seems that ultramon does most (of not all) that splitview does (effectively).

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2007-10-14 at 19:52:54ID: 20075757

try running a batch file with your U IP and the screen rewsolution of the office.

mstsc /v:192.168.0.xxx /con /w:2560  /h:1024
 
and see if that helps.

 

by: cottsakPosted on 2007-10-14 at 20:43:21ID: 20075881

i have tested the comment by SysExpert and it seems to work. i was not aware of that feature. the assumption is that you have 2 screens also at home - is this the case?

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2007-10-15 at 08:00:10ID: 20078765

It probably will also work with a single screen, simply by providing a scrolling window.

Please test.

 

by: jshussainPosted on 2007-10-18 at 19:53:45ID: 20106380

hey guys, i tried this out

mstsc /v:192.168.0.xxx /con /w:2560  /h:1024

I have a single screen at home and a dual screen at work (i remote desktop from home to work). The method suggested does work but it basically stretches one screen out. It doesn't really equal out to dual screen, its just one very wide screen.

I know this cause when i left my office computer, i had the icons spread across the dual screen system and then when i came home and tried this (mstsc /v:192.168.0.xxx /con /w:2560  /h:1024) to remote desktop, the icons where messed up and all on one side of the screen, just like how they wold get messed up when i did the normal remote desktop connection.

Thats okay though. I found a program called iconoid that saves icon positions so i find it easier to just the one screen setup for remote desktop at home and then when i get back to my office, i can just restore the icons back to there original places. Kinda like why cottsak suggested.

Its not too much of a hassle anymore.

Thanks for the help guys.
Much apperciated.

 

by: cottsakPosted on 2007-10-18 at 20:20:50ID: 20106504

i suggested UltraMon not just because it preserves the icon positions but it has other productivity features you might find helpful at work with 2 screens.

 

by: davidsonmgPosted on 2007-12-19 at 19:22:22ID: 20504634

you can may also like to try using a small yet efficient program called Icon Restore
http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html

 

by: pcrequestPosted on 2010-10-15 at 13:19:23ID: 33917275

I wish Microsoft would fix RD so desktop would auto restore.  Someone should launch a national campaign!  

Icon Restore worked for me despite looking old.

iconoid did not work for me despite looking like it is actively maintained.

I also noticed the taskbar on the target computer can move to the primary monitor when you log in locally.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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