Take control over your applications on multiple monitors

Our new project space came equipped with a nice big widescreen monitor on every desk. I had used multiple monitors a few years back while I was still running Windows XP and back then I tried a lot of tools which made multiple desktop management easier. Back then I ended up using ATi HydraVision, as it was free and as it did exactly what I wanted.

My work laptop comes equipped with an nVidia notebook graphics solution, but the default Dell driver hadn't installed nView (nVidia's version of HydraVision). So I started a little hunt and finally found the following options.

There are a few commercial tools which make multi-desktop management easier. I had tried UltraMon all those years ago and the extra toolbar, the handy chrome buttons and the ability to be really creative with your desktop backgrounds were unprecedented back then. But UltraMon isn't a free tool, so I kept looking.

DisplayFusion is a similar product. I haven't tried the commercial version and as the free version is only allowed for personal use, I couldn't install it on my work laptop.

Then I stumbled upon a forum post on how nVidia had removed nView from their display driver and nowadays only ships it with its more expensive Quattro adapters.A petition was started get nVidia to ship nView with their other cards as well.

It turns out though, that if you download the nVidia NVS or Quattro driver and then extract it, that you can run the installer for nView and it will work with a standard GeForce card as well. After installation, right-click your desktop, choose nView from the context menu and click the enable button to enable nView on your system.