Change Display ID#?

[NightrainSrt4]

How do you change the display ID number? Need to know for both XP and Win7.

Here's the issue. My left monitor needs to be #1, the middle #2, and the right #3 in order for tiling 5040x1050 wallpapers. My middle monitor has to be the current monitor, as I use the component inputs as well, and don't want to have to have the screen on the side.

No matter how I put the cables on the main card, the center monitor gets recognized as monitor 1. I successfully got the right monitor to be monitor 3 by putting it on the second video card, but I can not for the life of me figure how to put the left as monitor 1, and the center as monitor 2.

Any ideas?

[Luke122]

Why bother renumbering them? Just drag them to where you want them to be. :)

** EDIT: Clarification. **

The displays shown on the properties screen (with the numbers on them to show which is which) can be dragged around and repositioned to match your current desktop layout. Re-arrange them so that the they appear (on the screen) the way you want them (in real life).

[NightrainSrt4]

Well, playing 3-cable-monte is doing no good. I could just shuffle the screens physical position, but not really an option for me. The 2 side screens are inferior, and aren't going to be my main screen.

I wish windows would get multi-monitor stuff straight. Jeez. I've got the logical positioning done correctly, but windows still shuffles around the image.

Looks like I'll have to look into software solutions. Any good ones?

[Luke122]

http://aspalliance.com/images/articleimages/250/MaxivistaDisplayProperties.gif

[Luke122]

Oh, wait I get it.. one wallpaper, tiled across. Ok, then yeah, this wouldnt work.


**EDIT: Maybe it would.. I wonder if Windows is intelligent enough to know how the positioning of the monitors would affect the display of tiled media..? Might be worth trying..**


Hmm.... Ultramon, or Samuarize for software solutions?

[NightrainSrt4]

Ya, went and tried Ultramon and did it perfectly, so will probably have to buy that. I got the numbers and positioning to be correct through windows, but it still would mix up the wallpaper positions, no matter the settings.

Set it up through ultramon and worked perfectly the first time. This has been an issue in windows forever though, so you'd think they'd fix it in the 10+ years they've had to work on it, but, ehh.

Edit: The windows tiling and positioning was what I had been working with before. I had positioning all set up correctly, yet it would put the wrong parts of the wallpaper on the wrong screens. So even though it is set up left, mid, right, it would put the right piece of wallpaper on left or mid, and so on. Logically things were correct, but windows kept jumbling it all up.

[OvRiDe]

You could just swap the cables around?

[dr.walrus]

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

[x88x]

I'll put in another recommendation for displayfusion. If all you want to do is manage wallpapers on multiple monitors, it's great. And free!

[NightrainSrt4]

You could just swap the cables around?

I had done 3-cable-monte for about 2 hours. The closest I got was 3-2-1. Any time the right monitor was plugged in to the primary card it was #1, and the middle number 2. But if I moved the right monitor onto the third card then it would be #3, but the middle monitor would switch back to #1, not #2. It didn't matter anyway as the wallpaper was still jumbled when it was 3-2-1, and not backwards like you think it would be.

My dualboot XP was registering different numbers anyway, so I'd have to switch cables every boot into a different OS. I think it has to do with which monitors are plugged in, in which order, when the OS is first installed/first run.

I will look into displayfusion. So far I am liking ultramon though, and it works perfectly, but I will check that one out.

[SXRguyinMA]

if you've got ATi cards then hydravision will do it correctly for you, thats what I'm using. the newer versions of catalyst have multiple desktops and multiple monitor settings :up:

[NightrainSrt4]

No ati cards in this rig unfortunately. Actually the only one I have at the moment in a rig is a 9250SE, lol. Though I am seriously wanting a new 5 series, as I've just got a taste of 3 screen gaming but softth is leaving a bit to be desired with frame rates. I think it has to do with my second card in a x1 slot, as no matter the settings (lowest, highest) I am stuck at about 24-30fps.

Ultramon works on both xp and 7-64 for me, so I will probably stick with that. Thanks guys.

[chaksq]

I'll also suggest Display Fusion, that's what I've been using for a while now. A few others mentioned it. In it's basic form its free and that includes most wallpaper options other than slideshow.

[dr.walrus]

No ati cards in this rig unfortunately. Actually the only one I have at the moment in a rig is a 9250SE, lol. Though I am seriously wanting a new 5 series, as I've just got a taste of 3 screen gaming but softth is leaving a bit to be desired with frame rates. I think it has to do with my second card in a x1 slot, as no matter the settings (lowest, highest) I am stuck at about 24-30fps.

Ultramon works on both xp and 7-64 for me, so I will probably stick with that. Thanks guys.


Seriously, only pay for ultramon if you want the toys, displayfusion does EXACTLY what you want, for free.

I switched from displayfusion to Ultramon for a few reasons, but namely I wanted to just be able to press a button to change the layout of my four monitors (I have one on an anglepoise stand and it's hand being able to move it around, but not handy to crank open display settings every time I do). Also I always have something up on all the screens, so I never get to see the wallpaper anyway!

Prob not worth attempting 3 screen gaming with that setup, save up some pennies and get one of the new radeons with eyefinity, and a dvi adapter for the displayport on it.

[dr.walrus]

I had done 3-cable-monte for about 2 hours. The closest I got was 3-2-1. Any time the right monitor was plugged in to the primary card it was #1, and the middle number 2. But if I moved the right monitor onto the third card then it would be #3, but the middle monitor would switch back to #1, not #2. It didn't matter anyway as the wallpaper was still jumbled when it was 3-2-1, and not backwards like you think it would be.

My dualboot XP was registering different numbers anyway, so I'd have to switch cables every boot into a different OS. I think it has to do with which monitors are plugged in, in which order, when the OS is first installed/first run.

I will look into displayfusion. So far I am liking ultramon though, and it works perfectly, but I will check that one out.

I know you're running Nvidia cards, but ATI's hydravision utility lets you switch the number round.

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/6646/capturesx.jpg

Also, you may run into the problem of displays switching back around to their original position even after you swap cables over. This is an issue with Windows auto-detecting the displays because of the installed drivers. Uninstall the drivers and it should be ok.

[x88x]

Also, you may run into the problem of displays switching back around to their original position even after you swap cables over.

This is a good point. I know 7 is very good about remembering how I had monitors configured the last time w,x,y, and z monitors were plugged into DVI ports a,b,d, and c, or whatever, but if you switch cables around it's obviously a different unique arrangement, so it goes to defaults. if I understood your original problem correctly, the display #'s don't actually matter anyways though, as long and the OS, drivers, and aux programs know what they're doing.